The Boys’ School buildings were badly damaged by bomb blast and fire during 1940 and the Governing Body was able to carry out little repair work until after the war ended in 1945. When the school re-opened, therefore, only two classrooms were available for use, the remainder of the school buildings being in a terrible condition. Repairs were undertaken but owing to regulations, restrictions and shortages these went on, but slowly, and it was not until 1951 that the Great Hall was re-opened by the Lord Mayor.

Since 1952 many improvements have been carried out by the Trustees, both major and minor, with the help of the Local Education Authority and grants from the Education Ministry.

The most significant recent change is the return of the former Shoreditch County Court to the possession of the Trustees in 2005. This was transformed, at a cost of approximately £6,000,000, into a state-of-the-art educational building. It houses new technology rooms, a large Learning Resource Centre, the Sixth Form Centre and a lecture theatre.

The School Song

Spe Labore Fide

In hope we rise at early morn,

In labour pass the cheerful day,

In faith between the dark and dawn,

Our bodies down to sleep we lay.

Spe Labore Fide

Let hope inspire our boyhood days,

And labour our mature years;

May faith, the guide of all our ways,

In death’s dark hour subdue all fears.

Spe Labore Fide

Lord, may we build our hope on Thee,

And labour always in Thine eyes;

Confirm our faith, that we may be

Assured of heaven when we die.

Spe Labore Fide