Accommodation
The Fourth Form have their own section of the House next to the Deputy Housemistress where they are allocated into dorms of five (normally three boarders and two day boys), and these are changed on a regular basis (five times during the year) to ensure every boy shares a dorm with everyone else. There is also an open door policy to allow for easy integration within the year. In the Fourth Form area there are also three Upper Sixth ‘Fourth Form Prefects’ who are there to support but also to be ‘eyes and ears’.
The numbers of boys sharing in each room decreases as they get older. The Fifth Form share dorms of two or three throughout the rest of the House. This helps to ensure that senior and junior boys mix well and any hierarchical structure is broken down, which is a key feature of North. Lower Fifth and Upper Fifth boys change rooms at the end of each term. Every boy has his own study in the Sixth Form.
The main common room spaces are the large TV room (big enough for the whole house) and separate House and Games room (large enough for whole-House callovers to take place each morning), computer room and, most importantly, Matron’s room.
Matron’s room is at the heart of the House and is often the social hub of the House with a large kitchen and a patio area leading out onto the House Garden. This is an ideal venue for boys to relax and socialise and is often used for barbecuing. There are four other well–equipped kitchens (moabs) located around the House for everyone to use.
History
North is now a boys’ house of 100 boys situated at the crossroads leading to High Upfold with views over all the main sports pitches. However over the History of Cranleigh this has not been the case.
The two North dormitories were the last of the original ones to be opened and did not come into being until 1874. Housed on the north side of the Quad, 2 North occupied the second floor and 1 North the top floor, a disadvantage not only in terms of stairs to climb but also because the poor water pressure meant that taps did not work when being used by 2 North beneath them. In 1929 both houses moved their house rooms and changing rooms into the new Connaught Block although the dormitories remained in the Quad.
In 1965 1 North moved to a purpose-built house, constructed to mark the School’s centenary, on the site of the old refuse dump and incinerator. That they were picked was believed to be a reward for the loyalty their prefects and housemaster had shown to headmaster David Emms in his early years. Although aesthetically unlovely, the new building provided levels of comfort and privacy before then undreamt of. Refurbishments also allowed 2 North to move back from the Connaught Block and into the vacated space in the main buildings.
When the house structure was changed in 1999-2000, 1 North merged with 2&3 South, and 2 North with East. This was accompanied by a major refurbishment and extension which not only brought the standard of the accommodation to a high level but also made the outside far more visually appealing.
North is now linked with the girls’ house West.