The primary prime minister of Britain, Robert Walpole, went to Eton Faculty. So did Boris Johnson and David Cameron and greater than a dozen others.
Prince William and Prince Harry went there. So did the poet Percy Bysshe Shelley, the novelists Henry Fielding and George Orwell, the actors Tom Hiddleston and Hugh Laurie, and the economist John Maynard Keynes.
They usually all used the bathroom.
However the present group of boys on the elite boarding faculty won’t be doing so within the quick future.
On Tuesday, Eton college students didn’t return to high school as scheduled after winter break. Flooding of the Thames had overloaded sewers and prompted bathrooms to again up.
“Following intensive flooding within the area, the Thames Water sewers which serve the city of Eton flooded,” the college stated in a press release to The New York Instances on Wednesday. “Subsequently boys couldn’t return for the scheduled begin of time period on 9 January, and the Faculty has moved to distant educating. We’re in common contact with Thames Water as they search to resolve the state of affairs, and we sit up for welcoming boys again as quickly as attainable.”
The assertion discreetly averted utilizing the phrase “bathroom.”
“The sewers within the heart of Eton received’t address the arrival of almost 1,350 boys,” it stated in a barely extra frank letter to oldsters reported by Bloomberg and other news media outlets. It prices 50,000 British kilos per 12 months, or about $63,500, for boys ages 13 to 18 to attend the college simply exterior London.
There was important flooding in England this month after heavy rainfall. The Thames in some locations reached water ranges not seen in a decade.
The utility firm Thames Water had warned earlier in the week that the weeks of rainfall and excessive floor water ranges had “put large strain on our sewers and pumping stations. Water is getting into our community above and under floor, and flows from flooded rivers are including to the issue in some areas.”
In a press release in regards to the Eton closure on Wednesday to The Press Association, the corporate stated: “We’re sorry to workers and college students who’ve been impacted. Our groups will likely be finishing up a cleanup within the coming days as soon as the river ranges recede.”
In fact, the toilet state of affairs at Eton will not be the UK’s most urgent situation. However the incongruity of such a grand establishment being laid low by an earthly drawback couldn’t assist however entice some smiles right here and there.
Eton dates to 1440, when it was based by no much less a personage than Henry VI. (His later deposition and demise within the Tower of London had been unrelated.)
The college initially provided solely Latin programs, then Greek and different topics had been slowly added (arithmetic, for instance, didn’t arrive till 1851).
The college’s traditions embody the carrying of a proper uniform, together with a tailcoat and stiff collar. One other is the Eton wall sport, which entails boys pushing a ball alongside a wall underneath arcane guidelines for an hour, with most video games ending with a rating of 0-0.
Whereas these traditions proceed, the college has made efforts to modernize, celebrating Black and L.G.B.T.Q.+ historical past months and appointing a director of inclusion schooling, for instance. Whereas nonetheless attracting many rich and well-connected pupils, Eton has made efforts so as to add extra scholarship college students.
However for now, all of that’s on maintain due to a considerably earthier drawback.