Name Etched In Gold, King Charles’ School Remembers Him

King Charles III hasn’t even been crowned yet, but his name is already etched on the walls of Hill House School in London.

A wooden slab just inside the front door records Nov. 7, 1956, as the day the future king enrolled at Hill House, alongside other notable dates in the school’s 72-year history. There is a photograph of staff welcoming the then Prince Charles on his first day of school, and another of the 7-year-old boy getting into a Ford Zephyr with his bodyguard for the short trip back to Buckingham Palace.

To say Hill House is proud of its royal connection as Charles prepares for the coronation ceremony on May 6 would be an understatement.

“It’s just so fun to think the king went to our school,” said 11-year-old Lola Stewart. “Like, he’s worn our uniform. He’s probably been in this room. It’s just very exciting knowing that.”

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Charles, the first U.K. monarch to be educated outside the palace walls, began his school career at Hill House, although he spent less than a year there before moving on to Cheam, an elite boarding school in the countryside west of London. Hill House, a family-run primary school in London’s tony Knightsbridge neighborhood is just a stone’s throw from the luxury department store Harrods and a short drive from Buckingham Palace.

But the future king was treated like anyone else, wearing the school uniform with a burnished gold jumper and walking through the streets to the nearby sports field without a bodyguard, though the headmaster’s wife was nearby.

Blessed with anonymity, Charles flourished, said Richard Townend, the son of the school’s founder who attended Hill House at the same time, though he was a few years older. The school focused — and still does — on giving students a broad range of experiences in sport, art, music and drama, alongside more academic pursuits.