After a bequest made by the merchant Robert Aske to the Worshipful Company of Haberdashers on his death in 1689, a school and almshouses were built at Hoxton near the city of London.

For the southern section, land was purchased at Hatcham, now better known as New Cross Gate, for the foundation of boys' and girls' schools on what is now known as Telegraph Hill.

[citation needed] In January 2012, the then UK education secretary, Michael Gove, visited the school and gave a speech defending the government policy of converting local authority funded state schools into central government funded academies.

[1] In October 2012, a criminal investigation was launched into fraud allegations at the Haberdashers’ Aske’s Federation academy trust chain.

[2] A 55 year old male member of staff was suspended while the a civil case was launched against him to recover the defrauded funds.

"[4] In July 2014, conservative MP, Edward Timpson, reported to Parliament that £2.16 million had been defrauded from The Haberdashers' Aske's Federation Trust between the years 2010 to 2012.

The role of the CEO has now been taken over by Adrian Percival and Dr Elizabeth Sidwell has moved from Aske's to become Schools' Commissioner for England.