Founded in 1906 as the County Secondary School for Girls this school was originally located on Cassland Road in South Hackney. In May 1916 the school moved to a new building in Laura Place and was renamed the Clapton County Secondary School for Girls. The school’s motto original motto was: ‘To do good work whether we live or die’. The original building that fronts onto Laura Place it an attractive red brick building designed in an Edwardian Free Classical style. Built by the London County Council in 1914-16 it has an ornate stone-faced entrance with an arched doorway and bowed oriel window with herringbone brickwork. To the rear is a galleried assembly hall (now library) with an open timber roof. In 1947 the school was renamed The John Howard School (after the 18th-century prison reformer who was born in Lower Clapton). But, locally the school continued to be known as ‘Laura Place’. In 1999 the school was awarded Technology College status. It became known as Clapton Girls’ Technology College, with the new motto: ‘Learning Together, Working Together, Welcoming the Community’. Over the years the school has been extended with a number of extensions dating from c. 1920-5, 1959-60, c.1979, 1995 and 2010. In 2010 the school was refurbished and carefully extended by Jestico and Whiles Architects.
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