St Luke Charity School x St Luke's Parochial School

The School for Boys was instituted in 1698, in Saint Giles, Cripplegate, and derived its name of 'Grey Coat School' from the boys at that time being dressed in that colour. When the area was made a district parish under the name of St. Luke, Middlesex, the School was called the St Luke Charity School. The School was inaugurated and maintained by voluntary subscriptions and donations - the subscribers being managers and governors at the same time.

The Girls Schools was instituted in 1761 by voluntary subscriptions.

As time passed and the population of the district grew, the Managers felt the Schools' accommodation was insufficient for its requirements. Efforts to enlarge the premises by purchasing adjacent properties were unsuccessful, and as the wealthy began to leave the neighbourhood, support for the Schools dwindled.

The subscribers formed an investment committee and gradually built up funds as well as purchasing in 1853 ground rents of property in Marylebone Lane and Holborn. By 1863 further purchases were made in Cleveland Street, St. Pancras and Westmoreland Place.

Now the School was in a position to move from Golden Lane to a larger premises in Old Street on land owned by the Ecclesiastical Commissioners.

Funds were sought for the erection of a new school and in 1870 the foundation stone was laid for a building capable of holding 400 children.

The School's name was later changed to 'The Saint Luke's Parochial School' and by 1904 although the School was parochial in nature it was not exclusively so, since many of the children educated there, were not necessarily from the parish.