Victorian Shoreditch Industrial School (later St Faith's Hospital), Brentwood (EHER 15390)

Shoreditch Industrial School was built by the Shoreditch Trustees of the Poor in 1854. It comprised a south-facing main building, three stories high at the front with a dining-hall and kitchens in a wing at the centre rear, and long, narrow wings to each side. The front building was symmetrical with 21 bays broken by three advanced gable sections with white brick quoins. It had decorative round arched windows and a central entrance porch decorated by banded white bricks. The site was enlarged in 1869 and in 1879 when three detached blocks were built to the east. The school was taken over by Hackney Board of Guardians in 1885 and converted to a branch workhouse from 1908. Further additions were made including a swimming pool designed by W. A. Finch. From 1917 it was taken over by the Metropolitan Asylums Board and used to accommodate 300 female epileptics. It was later transferred to the London County Council in 1930, when it became St Faith's Hospital, and to the National Health Service in 1948. The school buildings now no longer exist and the site has been redeveloped to provide office accommodation.

A 55 acre site with the earliest buildings dating to 1854 and its use as a residential agricultural and industrial school set up the Shoreditch Trustees of the Poor. By 1885 it came under the Hackney Union and was used as a branch home, developing into a hospital for epileptic's. In 1930 it passed to London CC and the name changed to St Faith's hospital. It closed in 1991. Most of the buildings, including those of the industrial school, survive with relatively few external alterations. <1>. NRHE data transfer: Shoreditch Industrial School was built by the Shoreditch Trustees of the Poor in 1854. It comprised a south-facing main building, three stories high at the front with a dining-hall and kitchens in a wing at the centre rear, and long, narrow wings to each side. The front building was symmetrical with 21 bays broken by three advanced gable sections with white brick quoins. It had decorative round arched windows and a central entrance porch decorated by banded white bricks. The site was enlarged in 1869 and in 1879 when three detached blocks were built to the east. The school was taken over by Hackney Board of Guardians in 1885 and converted to a branch workhouse from 1908. Further additions were made including a swimming pool designed by W.A. Finch. From 1917 it was taken over by the Metropolitan Asylums Board and used to accommodate 300 female epileptics. It was later transferred to the London County Council in 1930, when it became St Faith's Hospital, and to the National Health Service in 1948. The school buildings now no longer exist and the site has been redeveloped to provide office accommodation. <2> <3> <4> See also: <5>