| AdminHistory | Poplar and Blackwall National School originated in 1711 when the Rev Josiah Woodward, Chaplain to the East India Company and curate of Poplar Chapel (later St. Matthias' Church), supported by a number of locally influential people, founded the Poplar and Blackwall Charity School. It opened in premises in Bow Lane (now Bazely Street) and was intended for the instruction and clothing of 30 boys and 20 girls. In 1729 the girls section was closed and two years later the boys section met the same fate. In 1737 the Rev Dr Gloucester Ridley of Poplar Chapel proposed a union with Limehouse for the purpose of re-opening the school.The scheme was successful under the name The United School of Limehouse and Poplar. Fifteen boys from the Parish of St. Anne, Limehouse and fifteen from the Hamlet of Poplar and Blackwall were admitted for education and clothing.
In 1780 permission was granted for the Town Hall in Poplar High Street to be used by the school and in 1805 a separate building was erected for the school on a site to the west of the workhouse in Poplar High Street. In 1807 the union with Limehouse was disolved and the building became for the exclusive use of boys from the Hamlet of Poplar and Blackwall.
In 1812 a proposal to add 40 boys to the number already provided for was unanimously accepted and the "Madras" system of education was introduced. In 1816 the school came under the auspices of the National Society for Promoting Religious Education and became known as Poplar and Blackwall Auxiliary National School. In 1818 the school was enlarged.
By the end of the nineteenth century the school was effectively the boys department of All Saints National School of which the girls department was in Bow Lane and the Infants Department in Newby Place. In 1895 there were some 180 boys on the role. Following a report by the Education Committee of the London County Council which found the premises unsuitable, the school closed in November 1906.
.M. Barr-Hamilton
December 1997. |
| CustodialHistory | The records, which consist of two minute books, were originally acquired by the Poplar Library Service in November 1938 and transfered to the Archives Section in 1994. |