We have found some very interesting information about this School. It grew out of the Ring and Rose Club. The architect F. W. Troup was art adviser and governor. It was closely associated with the Art Workers Guild in Queens Square and the Central School of Arts & Crafts. However, there is no certainty about its location in Globe Road (1896-1907), but there are clues.....
Fairfax-Cholmeley gives the history of this Craft School with lots of interesting images. In summary: Whitechapel Craft School was set up in 1891 in premises at 27 Little Alie Street. In 1896 it was moved to premises at 137-141 Globe Road, described there as a "disused Catholic Church". There are two 1891 photographs of workshops showing (some of) the inside of the building (we show one on this page). In 1907 the school moved to 37-39 Stepney Green Road. In 1915 it was forced to close due to financial and other pressures related to WW1.
A leaflet created in 1925 for the opening of the Memorial Garden describes the location of the School when it was in Globe Road as "within a stone's throw" of the Memorial Garden. The website hosting this leaflet expresses the view that the building currently on the site was the one used by the School.
Our thoughts on the location: As explained elsewhere we believe that the current building is the same as that on the site at the time that the School was in Globe Road (as shown in aerial photos at Disused Stations, though much messed about). However we are pretty certain that the School was not in this building. We have two reasons for this belief: the Fairfax-Cholmeley interior photos show some fenestration which we cannot make tally with that shown in the aerial photos. And, researching Gordon Hall, it seems to have been busy operating as a Mission at the relevant time (e.g. National Archives hold 'Gordon Hall, Globe Road minutes 1868-1904'). It could not have been both a busy Craft School and a busy Mission Hall, simultaneously.
The Fairfax-Cholmeley clue, about the disused Catholic church, leads us to St Anthony's church at about 137-141 Globe Road (occupying the land between Globe Road and what is now Wessex Road). However, according to the National Archives, it operated 1879-1936 and was an Anglican church. Apart from a small Baptist Chapel immediately opposite the Wesleyan Chapel shown on Weller's 1868 map we can see no other churches in Globe Road.
