Our History
Christ Church Primary School 1874
We had our origin in a charity school, which was founded in the parish in 1708. By 1732, there were thirty children in attendance and in 1782 the number had risen to seventy. A fund of £700 was found and in that year a faculty was obtained permitting a school to be built on the edge of the churchyard.
All children, from eight to ten years of age, whose parents resided within half a mile of the school were admitted, and no fees were charged. Living accommodation for the master and mistress were provided.
On 16 September 1817, a National School was established by Joseph Wilson, in temporary premises in Wheler Street. The following year, the Duke of York laid the foundation stone of a permanent school building on the south side of Quaker Street. The new school opened on 2nd July 1820 as the ’Spitalfields National School for the education of the poor in the principles of the Established Church’. It was declared that ’no poverty however extreme and no difference in religious sentiments in the parents shall be deemed a sufficient cause of exclusion to the children provided they conform to the regulations of the school’.
The line of Commercial Street cut through Red Lion Street and made it necessary for the Commissioners of Woods and Forests to purchase and clear the Charity School site. In 1869 a faculty was obtained to erect a new school with houses for a master and mistress at the east end of the churchyard, facing Brick Lane. The funds of both the Charity and National Schools were applied to the costs of the building which amounted to £5,953.
The new building, which was to be constructed on arches in order to avoid disturbing the graves, was begun in 1873 from the designs of James Tolley and Daniel Robert Dale of 13 Angel Court, Throgmorton Street. The builder was Christopher Forrest of Victoria Park Square, Bethnal Green. When the new schools were completed in 1874, the trustees of the Quaker Street National School surrendered their lease. The building still stands.