The first St John’s School on the corner of Dorchester Road and William Street was opened on 28 December 1864 to a design by Crickmay. It was enlarged in 1871. The land was acquired from Sir Frederick Johnstone and the original trust deed contained the provision “to be forever thereafter appropriated and used as and for a school for the education of children and adults only of the labouring manufacturing and other poorer classes in the Ecclesiastical District of St John Weymouth and for no other purpose….” This indicates the nature of the locality.
The Boys’ and Girls’ schools combined in 1947 and the Infants School combined with the main school two years later.
However, by the 1960s the building was showing its age and in 1974 a new school was built in Coombe Avenue.
The old school which had served generations of children so well was sold and the site redeveloped as flats. The photo shows the sale notice following the opening of the new school building.
