Former Bethnal Green British School

The Former Bethnal Green British School is a British school building constructed in 1839, with a front extension added in 1872. The original structure is made of stock brick and features a stuccoed parapet with two full-height pilasters at each end. It has a hipped slate roof and stands two storeys tall, including a central attic added in 1872. The building has three bays in the attic and a total of 13 windows on the first floor, with 10 windows on the ground floor extension from 1872. The attic features 6-pane sash windows, while the first floor has sash windows with intact glazing bars. The entrance is centrally located in the 1872 addition, with original side entrances marked BOYS on the left and GIRLS on the right under stuccoed plaques. The left side elevation has three blank sections, and the rear elevation has cambered pivoting casements for the Boys room on the first floor, while the Girls room has later 19th-century casements within original cambered heads.

The interior retains timber and wrought iron roof trusses. The school was built for the Spitalfields and Bethnal Green British Society to accommodate 500 children aged six to fifteen. It featured two large schoolrooms for boys and girls, entered from the end bays and separated by central spaces that included a schoolmaster's house and a visitors room. Designed to conform with the Lancastrian system, the schoolrooms allowed hundreds of children to sit in rows facing the front, with spaces behind their benches for monitorial supervision and platforms for the masters at the inner ends. In 1872, the main range, which originally had a pediment and bell turret, was altered by adding a classroom at the front and an attic extension in place of the bell turret. This building is an early example and an extremely rare survival.