Coopers' Company & Coborn School

Ogólne informacje

The Nicholas Gibson Free School was founded in 1536 by a prominent London citizen who earned his living as a grocer. On his death in 1549 Gibson's wife, Avice, took over the running of the School which could take up to 60 boys, although only 30 were free scholars. In 1552 she asked The Coopers' Company to undertake this task for her and thus the School included the Company's title in its name. The School was situated in Ratcliffe, a small parish bordering the Thames and the original site of the School is still traceable, fittingly in School House Lane in Stepney. The School remained there until 1892 when it moved to premises iin Tredegar Square in Mile End, where it remained until the move to Upminster. Prisca Coborn, the widow of a brewer, founded a School for both boys and girls in 1701, as a result of the terms of her will published in the year of her death. The School was first housed in a site east of Bow Church, but it soon moved to a site between the Church and Bow Bridge. In 1814 the School moved to a site bounded by Old Ford Road and Fairfield Road, part of which was later to become the Bryant and May match factory (now a housing development), visible from the Eastern Region railway line into Liverpool Street. In 1870 the School moved to the site in Tredegar Square, later to be occupied by the Coopers' Boys School. In 1891 the two Foundations were united. As the boys moved to Tredegar Square, Coborn, now an all-girls' school, moved to 86 Bow Road. In 1898 this...