Originally based in School Lane in the Centre of Liverpool, the Blue Coat Hospital School was founded in 1709 by Bryan Blundell to teach poor children to ‘read, write and cast accounts’.  The building cost £2,000!  Many of the pupils were orphaned, and so boarded at school. In 1765, the school was given the old organ from St Nicholas’ Church, when their new one was installed.

There is a great deal of information on the school’s own website.

Extract from Gore’s 1827 Directory:

Blue Coat Hospital, School Lane for the support of orphan and fatherless children, or of those who are in indigent circumstances; they are clothed, fed and lodged; the boys are taught reading, writing and arithmetic; the girls reading, writing and housewifery.  They are admitted at nine years old, and put out apprentices at fourteen. Present number in the Institution, 250 boys and 100 girls, total 350.  R. Dobson, Esq. Treasurer, Mr W. Foster, Superintendent, Mr J. Banks, Collector

The school moved to its current site in Wavertree in 1906 when it was nearly 200 years old!  The Bell Tower - seen in this photograph - was completed in 1915.