Casterbrook

We did play our own version of squash... using the movement forms.

Casterbrook was a boarding school for boys from families with strong magical traditions that operated up until 1938/39. Casterbrook, the school, is named after its founder, Sir Victor Casterbrook. Peter Grant calls the school, much to Nightingale's dismay, Hogwarts' as a reference to the magical school in Harry Potter.

Thomas Nightingale was sent there at the suggestion of his Uncle Stanley. While recuperating from a gunshot wound after WWII Thomas Nightingale carved a memorial wall for fallen students in the dining hall of Casterbrook.

Building Design

The school was housed in a building called Ambrose House. It was designed in the style of a Georgian terrace.

Night Gate

The night gate is a door into the school building that can only be opened with magic. When the building was a school 6th form students used the night gate to leave after curfew to visit pubs and engage in nightlife.

Curriculum

Little is known about the curriculum or structure of the school. The school had both magic and non-magic libraries.

Sports

The boys used to play a game indoors, using impello to propel tennis balls (cricket balls for sixth formers) at their opponent.

Magic

During summer term students would sneak off to the woods, build a campfire and try attract the supernatural, often succeeding with ghosts.

Teachers

• Danglepot, teaching magical theory

Other staff and employees

• Old Borso, one of the groundsmen

Confirmed former students

• Ballantine junior
• Champers
• Rupert "Lazy Arse Dance" Dance
• Horace Greenway (died during the Battle of Crete)
• Leon
• Thomas Nightingale
• David Mellenby
• Nigel Taupwert
• Hugh Oswald
• Pascal
• Sandy
• Donny Shanks (survived the siege of Leningrad, but later got torpedoed)
• Smithy (died at Dieppe)
• Spotty
• Walter
• Geoffrey Wheatcroft

School Closure

The school closed during 1938/39 when the building was seconded for the World War II military war effort. After the events at Ettersberg there was an insufficient number of teachers and potential students to reopen the school after WWII.

Thomas Nightingale was one of the only remaining individuals with an official government status after WWII. Although he did not re-open the school he retained the building and grounds under the umbrella of The Folly in the hope the school would eventually reopen.

Current Status

The copy of Principia Artes Magicis found in Jason Dunlop's home belonged to the Casterbrook library at Ambrose House. Jason had probably gotten the book from Geoffrey Wheatcroft, since he had borrowed the book in July 1941 and never returned it to the school’s library. Nightingale and Peter retrieved the card catalogue for the magical books from Casterbrook soon after this event.

Confusion over school name

There has been confusion amongst the readership about the Nightingale's school name, for the following reasons:

• In Moon Over Soho the school is only referred to as Ambrose House. This name is never mentioned again.
• The explanation of Casterbrook as the school name, and Ambrose House as the building name is not in the canon, but has only been given on Twitter.
• In Broken Homes Nightingale says his Uncle Stanley suggested he attend Cosgrove Hall. This was a typographical error.
• In The Hanging Tree a different spelling of "Caster-brook" is used. Presumed to be a typo.
• In the Waterstone's edition of The Furthest Station, the interview with Ben Aaronovitch uses "Easterbrook". Presumed to be a typo.