The Blue Coat Hospital, is the site of a medieval hospital originally known as  St. John the Baptist, located at Upper Northgate Street, in the English city of Chester,  Cheshire.

The Blue Coat Hospital was founded by the Bishop of Stratford (1700) to house and educate the poor boys in religion and learning. Despite its ‘Blue Coat Hospital name‘, it was a boy’s school, rather than an hospital where the students learned their four ‘R’s’: “reading, ‘riting, ‘rithmetic and religion.”.

To qualify as a “Blue Coat“, parents had to prove that they had not enough money to send their sons to regular boarding school. Then, once qualified, their son was dressed in the distinctive blue uniform that represented The Blue Coat.

So who designed the true coat of the Chester Blue Coat on the edifice of this building?

The answer is, I still do not know.

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