Brooklawn, an 18th-century house in Palmerstown in Dublin, on the southern banks of the Liffey, has been home to principals of the King’s Hospital since the school bought both house and attendant 80 acres in 1970. Recently appointed headmaster John D Rafter has been living in Brooklawn since August.
“This is a friendly house, not an austere house at all. When you walk down the sweeping main staircase in the morning it’s as if you’re making an entrance to the day, rather than drifting into it. A statement of intent, almost.
“I’m very happy here. I’d been acting principal since August last year, was appointed headmaster in March and moved in this August. Before that I’d been living nearby, in Brooklawn Mews for three years as deputy head.
"Long before that I was a pupil here, a boarder from the west of Ireland, a Church of Ireland boy from Ballinasloe. I qualified as a teacher in Trinity and returned to King's Hospital in 1978 to do my H Dip. Technically, I've been teaching in King's Hospital since 1979.
Background to growing up “The senior rugby pitch is just outside, in front of the trees. I played there. This house was very much the background to my growing up and secondary education, a house that had an aura for me during those years.
“You saw it from the outside but, apart from a few formal functions, never saw the inside. It wasn’t until a colleague, Frances Hill, became the first headmistress in 2003 that I had a chance to see the real grandeur of the place. Now I have to deal with it daily.
"It dates back to the late 1700s. Capt Frances Brook sold it in 1785, so it was here then. You get a real sense of history, living here. Pride too in the recognition of your commitment to education; it's partly a reward for that commitment and partly a sentence! The sentence is the enormous responsibility. I consider it a great privilege to live here and feel very protective about the building.
“When I moved in first I thought ‘Oh, this is all too much’; but it’s amazing what you can get used to – here’s me now with room for a pony.
“Being head at King’s Hospital you’re aware of people’s difficulties and issues in a way you wouldn’t be as an ordinary teacher. Staff, pupils, teenagers – people have a lot of challenging things to deal with.
“The house gives you a sense of your status as head of King’s Hospital, puts it in perspective. You’re in a privileged position. It’s an onerous job with great demands on time but you do feel part of an historical institution, of established traditions. I’ve great reverence for the previous heads I’ve worked for.
“In 2019 the school will celebrate the 350th anniversary of getting its charter from King Charles II, so I’ll be planning for that in this house.
“I live here as I would in a much smaller house. I’ve personalised things a bit, like setting the drawingroom up with new curtains and sorting out my private living spaces. I’m not going to make any fundamental changes. There’s a preservation order, so there’s only so much we can do anyway.
“I want the house to be used for school and social functions. I want pupils to see it too, though formally, to use it for meetings with prefects and mentors or when the p
arents’ association meets with the student council.
“My aim is to create a sense of calm about the place, an air of grandeur without it being fussy. It’s very much a lived-in house, not a spectacle to be looked at.
“Haunt/ed? Stories abound. The bedroom door opened spontaneously in the middle of the night not long after I moved in so... who knows?
