Draft:Harrow Notes

Harrow Notes was a school newspaper published at Harrow School from 1883 to 1887. It was re-published independently from 1984 to 1985, and from 2020 onwards. It succeeded and was replaced by the School's current newspaper The Harrovian.

Cover of the refounded Harrow Notes, 2020. Illustration depicts boys at Harrow School descending from the school's original building, Old Schools.. Artwork by Arturo Saville.

The original Harrow Notes was founded out of the frustration of a former Harrovian editor, who was upset that The Harrovian had been discontinued on grounds of price after they had graduated from Harrow School. Since the first publication of Harrow Notes, a school paper has been published continuously since 1883. Editions of Harrow Notes are available on the Harrovian Archive.

Publication history

Image of an article from the later released 'Harrovian' newspaper, 1978.

Harrow Notes was published monthly from 1883 to 1887, and cost boys at Harrow School 'Five Shillings per annum,' or around £25 today.

The first edition featured a "Note to our Readers," explaining the founding of the publication:

"A little apology will, we think, be needed to justify our present attempt to provide the School with a permanent Newspaper, conducted in a manner differing in many essential particulars from that which has obtained in the case of previous School publications. During the past twenty years, the Triumvirate, the Tyro, and two Harrovians have come and gone; all magazines, managed from within the school. Our desire is [...] to provide more continuously than has hitherto been possible, the exercise of literary gifts among the members of the School [...] implying real intellectual culture in Politics, in Science and in Art. We hope to make Harrow Notes a complete and interesting record of all the current incidents of School life, that Harrow men, in all parts of the world, may know something of what is taking place in the Old School."

The publication was considered unique because it was not published by current Harrovians. The editor was credited as 'an Old Harrovian'. This aspect was both the reason for its founding and its eventual disbandment. Harrow Notes focused its content more on life off The Hill than the previous school publication,The Harrovian. Additionally, it was not supposed to focus around sport, which had been the primary function of previous school publications, although it is noted that the sports pages were the most read section, observed due to intense ware on scanned editions. Harrow Notes published an annual edition focusing entirely on the Harrow vs Eton match at Lords Cricket ground. Later versions of the publication also observed this tradition, most notably in 2023, when news broke that the Harrow v Eton match would cease that same year.

The original Harrow Notes ceased publication due to a lack of readers and financial support in 1887. Harrow Notes then became The Harrovian (published internally) and the Harrow Almanack (which, originally a supplement to Harrow Notes, was published by school booksellers 'Crossley and Clarke', and commemorated veterans who attended Harrow School) in the later 1880s.

Current iteration

Cover of the current Harrow Notes' supplement, 'Forum Magazine.' Cover illustration includes the edition's focus on 'Democracy', and the contributors.

In 2020, Harrow Notes was refounded by harrovians Arturo Saville and Robert Young as a quarterly illustrated magazine, explicitly focusing on topics outside of Harrow School: principally discussion, current events, and the arts. For the first time, it was a direct refounding of the original publication, rather than a use of its longstanding namesake. Harrow Notes' current iteration also sporadically releases incert magazines. Notably, Forum Magazine, which publishes philosophical discussion content written by a select group of students. It continues to publish on a quarterly basis.