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Private school using a Royal Park as a 'playground' will open for London's super-rich in September

The Eaton Square upper school will open in September  - Alamy
The Eaton Square upper school will open in September - Alamy

A private school for oligarchs is opening in Mayfair and Chelsea in September, it was revealed yesterday, as the new head claims that a Royal Park will be used as the students’ “playground”.

Charging fees of £22,500 a year, the Eaton Square upper school is the first co-educational private school to be open in London for decades, and aims to cater for the bankers, aristocrats and oligarchs of London’s wealthiest borough.

According to headmaster Sebastian Hepher, the school--which is located at 106 Piccadilly, a Grade I-listed townhouse--will provide a luxurious setting for children of super-rich Europeans and Russians, who aren’t at the “point academically” to be accepted into “St Paul’s or a Westminster School.”

In promotional material circulated ahead of its opening, the school claims that pupils will learn about the “neoclassical movement” during art lessons held in rooms designed by Robert Adam, the celebrated 18th century architect.

Eaton Square is the most expensive street address in England
Eaton Square is the most expensive street address in England

It adds that rather than drawing “inspiration” from a “picture book” students will look to their opulent surroundings and feel “lucky” to call the “beautiful building their school”.

Unveiling his plans yesterday, Mr Hepher said that pupils will use Green Park, opened at the behest of Charles II in 1668, as their playing fields.

“In effect, Green Park will be the playground, which will be fantastic,” he told The Guardian. “Lots of space, lots of green, and it’s 10 yards from our front door.”

The main cohort of the school’s 98 pupils live in Eaton Square, England’s most expensive residential street, Mr Hepher said, while others live closeby in neighbouring Chelsea.

“South Ken today is a hugely international population so the schools are populated by those families, which makes it the richest melting pot,” he continued.

Owned by Minerva Education, a subsidiary of private equity firm August Equity, Eaton Upper hopes to expand rapidly amid heightened demand for more independent school places in central London.

“There has always been this bottleneck,” he added. “There are lots of centrally located prep schools, but London has become incredibly difficult and very competitive for boys and girls to find a senior school.”