Greengates School was founded by Edward Foulkes and his partner Frank Whitbourn in a house in Lomas de Chapultepec in 1951. Originally, the school had no uniform and only one school bus. Over the years, it moved several times to accommodate an increasingly larger enrolment. The school, originally meant to cater to the sons of British and Commonwealth diplomats and citizens in Mexico City, was becoming more popular with wealthy Mexicans living in Lomas de Chapultepec who sought a high standard of education for their children, which they found at Greengates.