GREY COAT HOSPITAL, TOTHILL FIELDS, so called from the colour of the children's clothes, was founded in 1698 for the maintenance and education of seventy poor boys and forty poor girls of the parish of St. Margaret, Westminster. A subsequent foundation, in 1707, included the parish of St. John the Evangelist, and the Hospital, as at present established, is confined to the education and maintenance of one hundred children, whose parents must have had a legal settlement in either o the parishes for a period of seven years immediately preceding the admission of such child. No child is admitted under seven or above the age of ten. An annual subscriber of 7 guineas, or 30 guineas composition, is a governor of the Hospital, and entitled in rotation to present a child for admission as vacancies arise.

Peter Cunningham, Hand-Book of London, 1850