The Blue Coat School Explore our Collections
The Liverpool Blue Coat School, also referred to as the Charity School or the Blue Coat Hospital, was the original occupier of the present Bluecoat building in School Lane. The school, set up for the town’s orphaned and destitute children, had been founded in 1708 by the Rector of Liverpool, Reverend Robert Styth and Bryan Blundell, a master mariner, much of whose fortune he invested in the school as it grew. He was largely responsible for funding a larger boarding school to replace the original, smaller building opposite St Peter’s Church. The exterior frontage, and a little of the inside, remain substantially the same as when the school was built between 1716-25.
This collection contains documents relating to Blundell and to those early years of school life, as well as later documents and photographs from some of the almost 200 years that the school was in the building. It moved to new premises in suburban Wavertree in 1906, where it continues today. We have worked closely with the Liverpool Blue Coat School to develop this website and, as well as the material available in this collection, there are many more documents being prepared to go on to the site.
Our other partner in the My Bluecoat project, Liverpool Record Office at Liverpool Central Library, also houses significant Bluecoat material, and some of this is also on the site. Their holding – relating to both the school and the arts centre – is available to view, by appointment.
If you have material about Blue Coat School when it was in School Lane (until 1906) that you would like to share with us, we would love to hear from you, whether it’s an old postcard, a letter from a pupil, a photograph, or even a story relating to a relative who studied here.

1717
Portrait of Bryan Blundell

1717
Narrative of the rise and progress of the Charity School, or Blue Coat Hospital

1717
Latin inscription on the front of the building

1717
Early school graffiti

1890
Blue Coat School dormitories

1890
Photograph of a room at the school

1890
Blue Coat school classroom

1890
School boy at front gates

1890
Girls working in laundry

1890
School refectory

1890
The Blue Coat School Band

1890
Woodwork shop

1889
Record of girls' employment after leaving school

1871
The Bible of Blue Coat School Pupil, William Seed

1903
Pupil's Swimming Certificate

2016
Subscriptions, Schooling and Slavery brochure

1920
Founders' Day Parade

1812
Blue Coat School Visitors' Book

1859
A Sketch of the Origin and Early History of the Liverpool Blue Coat Hospital by John R. Hughes

1743
Boys' admissions and dismissals record

1890
Offsite mealtime

1843
Recollections of the Blue Coat Hospital, Liverpool, St Georges Day

1709
The Ledger Accounts of Bryan Blundell, Founder of the Blue Coat Hospital

2017
Bluecoat: The first 300 years publication

1741
Minute Book of the Board meetings of the Blue Coat School Trustees and Governors, 1742 -1813

1798
Blue Coat School Economy Board Minute Book, 1798-1808

1844