Wellington College Bricks Travel from Shanghai to the Chelsea Flower Show

Wellington College in Shanghai is building on the heritage of it’s prestigious partner in the UK, brick by brick, as part of the world famous RHS Chelsea Flower Show held in London.

As the College is commemorating the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Waterloo, which coincides with the flower show, and to celebrate it’s namesake as the Duke of Wellington’s memorial, the feature in the Chelsea Flower Show will bring together both schools in a display of its 150 year heritage.  The flower show is sponsored by Darwin Property Investment Management and the company’s Chief Executive, Anthony Esse, an Old Wellingtonian, has drawn upon the school’s partnership with Shanghai in the development of a garden, which will be replanted in the College grounds after the show concludes.

The design of the garden represents the Battle as well as the architecture of Wellington College; the inscriptions left by 150 years of College students in the brickwork of the college buildings are of particular interest and the designers plan to replicate this in the brickwork of the garden. 

Last month, a suitcase of bricks flew from London Heathrow airport to Shanghai so that the pupils of Wellington Shanghai might join the pupils of Wellington College in the UK in carving their markings into some of the bricks.  In keeping with the historic graffiti, pupils spent an afternoon chiseling their Chinese and English names using coins and tools to represent their ongoing engagement with the College’s history and foundation.