GCSE and AS/A Level Art and Design were two of the subjects which girls frequently had to travel between the two sites for.

It was this less than desirable situation which meant that in 2003 the Lower School Site was sold and developed into houses and flats.

The main school building was converted into 12 apartments and 2 duplex galleried houses and renamed 'Academy Square'.

This project was not completed entirely until 2006 and went on to win the Built-In Quality Award from the London District Surveyors Association.

This part of the work was done by Cove Architects[3] who specialise in "Built-In" architecture (i.e. when a building which already exists is converted into something else).

The other buildings, including the gym, "B-Block" (a prefabricated building dating from the late 1980s) and "wing" (a supposedly temporary structure dating from the 1940s and consisting of a science laboratory and three classrooms) were demolished, and houses built on them.

The first school was started, in 1906, by the founder Frances Bardsley in the centre of Romford; her vision was to provide free education for local girls.

So established did the school become that it moved into large new premises on the northern outskirts of Romford (the modern day site on Brentwood Road).