In 1984 Katharine Mears (now Colquhoun) founded Broomwood Hall School in Broomwood Road, Clapham, the independent pre-preparatory school for boys and girls of which she is still the Principal. At that time the majority of boys? parents envisaged that they would go to boarding prep schools at 8, so that keeping boys after that age never formed a part of the plans for Broomwood Hall.

But by 1992 parental attitudes had changed tremendously, with many openly questioning the desirability of sending boys away to board at such an early age. So, when in that year Northcote Lodge - a large, dilapidated but full of country house character mansion on Wandsworth Common - became available, she and her husband Malcolm acquired it with the object of building up a first class, traditionally run boys? day prep school for which they felt sure there would be a strong demand.

From the outset they determined that, while sharing the curriculum and approach of its sister school, Northcote Lodge should be very much its own school with its own feel, style and traditions. The school opened its doors in September 1993 under its first headmaster, Desmond Bain, with just 14 pupils and two teachers. Now well into its second decade it has reached its full size of around 180 boys with 20 full time teachers under its second headmaster, Paul Cheeseman, appointed in 1998.

Malcolm and Katharine Colquhoun remain the Principals of Northcote Lodge and take a close interest in what goes on there, shouldering the responsibility for the school's continued success and ensuring that it stays in line with their ideals. They have laid down its ethos and philosophy, which are identical to those of Broomwood Hall, and have taken care to appoint as headmaster only one whose attitude and approach exactly accord with their own. Their original vision has led in a very short time to Northcote Lodge being recognised as one London?s foremost day preparatory schools for boys, sending its pupils to all the best-known public schools (see Leavers), and exemplifying all that is best in the prep school tradition whilst at the same time being both modern and forward looking.