Alfred House is home to the School’s male boarders.
Based in the heart of the School, with access to all of the School’s facilities, Alfred House is a home away from home for many of our students.
There are newly refurbished rooms housing just over sixty pupils and vary from en-suite single bedrooms to shared bedrooms with shared bathroom facilities.
The students’ very well furnished personal space is complemented by a wide range of communal areas in which our boarders come together to cook (in either of the two kitchens), play table tennis, pool, or any other of many options available in the ‘Games Room’, practise music (on their own instruments, or on either of the two pianos), watch sports, films or other shows (on a large-screen TV), or just hang out with their friends.
A secure and reliable wifi internet connection is available throughout the House, both to the Microsoft Surface devices provided by the School, but also for the boarders’ own devices.
A well-equipped laundry room with a number of washing machines and tumble dryers is available for use. There are five resident tutors and a Houseparent who lives in a flat overlooking the House.
The boarders are assisted by dedicated boarding tutors who regularly set time aside for each student. Furthermore, at least one member of staff is always easily available to boarders, day or night.
Boarders’ Voices
The students residing in Alfred House are encouraged to make their views known and given the opportunity to help put them into practice by securing a position on the Alfred House Council. This is a flexible student body which includes a House Captain and his Deputy, as well as up to five other senior prefects: Academic, Wellbeing, Social and Facilities/Environment Secretaries and a Treasurer.
House Background
The original Ashford School boarding accommodation, once the School moved to East Hill in 1913, was in what is now affectionately called ‘Old Alfred’. Alfred House is the uninterrupted continuator of that first House and, therefore, the oldest of our present four boarding houses.
The boarders currently live in two connected buildings: (New) Alfred, opened in 1974, and Nightingale (Florence Nightingale is thought to have visited!). The former, a comparatively young construction on the ancient East Hill, is perfectly positioned to allow access to a multitude of sport facilities, as well as offering from its upper floor beautiful leafy views extending all the way to the North Downs. The latter is a Georgian listed building which, for a number of decades starting in the 1920s, used to be a distinct Ashford School boarding house and, prior to that, even a school in its own right.
While not entirely certain, the name of Alfred House seems to be a reflection of the popularity in earlier centuries of one of the most favourably imagined English historical figures: King Alfred the Great (d. 899).
