Day trip to Eton

Waking up at some ungodly hour this morning was particularly grim, but my housemate had invited me to explore the infamous Eton. I accepted out of an urge to have a good old snoop and to really see how the other half live. It didn’t disappoint.

It did however, contradict the image of Eton I had in my head. No less lavish, but I had expected some secluded castle nestled in London overspill. The college, instead, had more of a feel of Oxford University. Sprawled over the town of Windsor were the buildings that housed lots of upperclass boys dressed in their white bow ties and black tails. Our tour started with the choir concert in the chapel which had what has to be the most ornate Organ that I’ve ever seen. So decorative, in fact, that it took me a couple of moments to realise that was actually what it was.

We proceeded to the library, through the corridors the headmasters office and his ‘suite for guests’ were located. Lining the corridors were portraits of each of the headmasters in varying artistic styles. Annoyingly I couldn’t take many photos in the library as they weren’t permitted, but I managed to sneakily take a couple- I couldn’t get a photo of the first European edition of the bible, however, as this was strictly guarded at all times.

We explored the art department and they had some particularly impressive work on display by the Artist in resident, and had an exhibition of work by the artist Adam Ball. One of his pieces I plan to explore further and feature here but I’m waiting for him to respond with a professional photo of the piece of work.

I had a great day exploring, it was an absolutely mad place with a hell of a lot of money poured into it. Wealth practically dripped from the silk drapery. The opportunities in tech alone were astounding, with GCSE students building fully functioning soapbox style race cars. However, my favourite thing to come out of today was the photo I took at the station this morning, definitely made it worth getting up so early.