The Burgess Room

We are delighted to rename one of the historic reception rooms in the Oakwood Sixth Form centre in honour of former Headmistress, Averil Burgess.

Averil was Headmistress from 1975 to 1993, and the key architect in the establishment of South Hampstead’s bursary programme after the abolition of the Direct Grant scheme. She transformed the ethos of the school, and created the foundations for girls to speak out with confidence.

Thanks to generous support from the community, we have been able to refurbish the original dining room in the Oakwood building. The Burgess Room is now a home for Sixth Form for study and a place to encourage rational, respectful discussion and debate.

The new-look Burgess Room will also house some of the South Hampstead art collection and works by our Sixth Form Art Scholars. In the new bookshelves, we are building a collection of books for extended Sixth Form learning, with titles on free speech, debate and speaking out; they will also contain the archive of school magazines, dating from 1876, and a collection of published titles written by South Hampstead alumnae.

In pride of place in the room are the original carved chair and table, used by Mrs Burgess during assemblies when she was Headmistress, presented to the school by the parent body in the 1960s. With a nod to its original use as a dining room, the Burgess Room will also be used for dinners and small gatherings to welcome and thank our supporters. We were delighted that Mrs Burgess joined us for our very first dinner, and was seated at the head of the table on her carved chair, for the official naming of the room.