At the end of the Summer Term in 2002 B House or College House, as it I had been known, ceased to exist as a boys’ house. The Housemaster at that time was Roger Keeley who was the 11th Housemaster to take charge of B House during its 87-year history.

The foundation of B House dates from the time of Headmaster Beloe (1915-1928). When he arrived at Bradfield he observed ‘genuine roughness in the tone of the School’, and felt this was due to a fault in the place itself and a lack of organisation. He took immediate action and subdivided ‘College’ or ‘School House’, as it was renamed, into two houses each with their own Housemaster. Beloe managed strong opposition from senior members of the SCR by shrewdly appointing those opponents to the new houses, which became known as ‘Mr Nicholl’s House’ and ‘Mr West’s House’, later to be known as A House and B House.

As a result of this change, Houserooms ceased to be classrooms and Housemasters dined with their boys in Hall. One of the overall effects was to make the Housemasters much better known amongst their boys. Thanks to increased numbers, the old Modern Side House (D House) later reopened as the Headmaster’s House with Army House remaining as before. The College therefore had 4 houses.

By 1920, the Junior House came to an end, and the building which had been a private house became Hillside (F House). This was followed by the greatest changes within the College where the two houses around Quad became three. The designs of HJS Vaughan, an Old Bradfieldian, established the architecture of Quad, familiar to generations of Bradfieldians. The East side of Quad was occupied by A House, the south side by B House and the north side by E House (picture in the gallery below).

The alterations to houses meant the new Houses were more compact, each being distinct from the rest. The Bradfield Chronicle at the time noted “All these Houses have only one houseroom each, are light and airy and are a great improvement on the gloomy dungeons of former days. The idea of reducing and localising each individual House is to encourage the growth of house spirit – a difficult thing to accomplish in the amorphous Houses of the past.”

Boys remember Housemaster Murray Argyle during the period 1948-70 with David Munn (B 62-67) mentioning Murray as one of the greatest of all house masters: "I was there in his heyday when we won most of the school house sports competitions. He was a wonderful man and a great supporter after you left Bradfield".

Later, like Beloe, Anthony Quick after his appointment as Headmaster reorganised again. A House and E House were relocated to their present sites as Loyd House and Field House and B House (College House) moved to the North side of Quad in 1978.

The North side of Quad was the final location of B House opposite the Master’s Tennis Court and provided a more spacious venue. When Roger Keeley took over the House in 1993 from Rodney Bailey (SCR 1976-97) it was the only House at Bradfield to guarantee every Shell boy a single study bedroom, albeit within the older 19th century part of the College. Sadly, over time the other more spacious houses set apart from the school and its classrooms became more popular resulting in the final decision to close the doors of B House.

In Stuart Williams book ‘Prosperity Past Our Deserving’, he describes B House as Bradfield’s short-lived international house, which appears to have been more a co-incidence than an intention. Roger remembers the multinational community in the late 1990s “some pupils came from countries with which Bradfield had long standing links (e.g. Thailand) and the school also established links for the first time with countries such as Taiwan…Pupils from Hong Kong were joined by pupils from mainland China from 1997 onwards. It was great to have a mix of nationalities living under the same roof (including of course British pupils based both in the UK and overseas) in an environment they could befriend each other and learn from each other’s cultures. Two annual international events became well-established in the house calendar – a Chinese New Year dinner cooked by pupils (preceded by a Sunday shopping expedition to Chinatown) and a German evening in early November with traditional German food and drink brought back after Long Leave.”

B House was the last in-College house. On the last night of the summer term in 2002, as the sun went down the boys enjoyed a barbeque in Quad. This was followed by a James Bond film projected onto two bedsheets which had, with the matron’s help, been sewn together in the week before and then strung up from a couple of bedsit windows and the evening concluded with a spectacular firework display.

The changing nature of Bradfield now demanded a new role for B House as college offices and the House was closed. Alumni of B House will have their precious memories of their time as a community, and we are thrilled that the spirit of B House lives on with their flag flying at reunion events at college and the B House tie adorning Mr Keeley’s neck from time to time.

Mr Keeley has selected some key photographs of his time as Housemaster in a gallery below which we hope brings back happy memories for those in house during his tenure. Apparently, the joint winners of the Pancake Eating Competition managed 26 pancakes by 11:15pm!

Also included a recent picture of Roger wearing his B House tie at the 2025 ISFA Cup Final alongside former pupil and current parent from Thailand Somkrit Krishnamra (B 91-96).

Please do share your own comments and memories below.