London Collegiate Institute.
On Sept. 1, 1865 Bishop Hellmuth opened a private
boys preparatory school called the London Collegiate
Institute on ten acres of land on the north side of
St. James Street between Waterloo and Wellington
Streets. Two years later in 1867 it was renamed the
Hellmuth Boys college which closed in 1877. Shortly
afterwards, Rev. H.F. Darnell revived the building
as an educational facility and renamed it the Duffer~
in (Boys) College and continued to operate the
school until 1882 when it was sold to the Western
Univ. of Ontario who used it to house its Faculty of
Medicine. The Faculty of Medicine moved out in 1885 and the
building remained vacant until it was demolished in
1895.
In 1809, the London District Grammar School opened
in Vittoria, Norfolk County (then the capital of the
London District). In 1837, the Grammar School
relocated to the old log courthouse building on the
north side of King Street on Courthouse Square in
London. The first principal was Rev. Francis Wright
who was succeeded in 1841 by Rev. Benjamin Bayly.
On August 1st, 1865 the London Grammar School
amalgamated with the London Union School to form the
London Central School.
The grammar school then moved from the old courthouse
to the former Union School building which had been
built in 1849 on the south side of King Street between
Colborne and Waterloo Streets (and demolished in 1890).
In 1871, the Central School was renamed the
London High School and in September, 1878, it moved
into its own separate building at Dufferin and Waterloo Streets.
The next year, this school became the London Collegiate Institute.
On April 22, 1920 fire destroyed the 1878 building and the
new London Central Collegiate Institute was opened in 1922.
Forty years later in 1962, the name changed to
London Central Secondary School.
Compiled by Arthur McClelland, LR Librarian.
