Originating in 1843 and formerly called Upper North Street School, it was badly damaged in an air raid in 1917 during the First World War, resulting in the deaths of eighteen children.

In 1882, a new three-storey school building was completed on the site, designed for 800 pupils between the ages of five and fourteen years.

[2] On the morning of 13 June 1917 during the First World War, a formation of fourteen German Gotha bombers attacked the City of London.

[3] Fifteen of the children were buried on 20 June 1917 in a communal grave at the East London Cemetery after a civic funeral.

Almost £1,500, equivalent to £116,000 in 2023, was collected door-to-door to pay for a monument, the Poplar Recreation Ground Memorial, with the remainder going to local charities.

[4] Three female teachers who were in the infants' department when the bomb struck were awarded the Medal of the Order of the British Empire for Meritorious Service for their "very conspicuous courage and presence of mind".

[6] On 15 June 2017, Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh visited Tower Hamlets to commemorate the centenary of the bombing in 1917.