Based on a presentation made to Penge History Group on 19 December 2023

In 1725 there were only 60 people living in Penge, which was a “detached hamlet” of Battersea, without a church of its own. Penge Chapel was opened in Croydon Road on 8 October 1837, by which time the population had risen to nearly 200. The Chapel was available for “religious instruction in accordance with the doctrines & services of the established Church of England”, so this marked the beginning of what was to become St John’s School. 

When St John’s Church was opened in 1850 the chapel became Penge Boys’ and Girls’ School. Then, in 1859 Penge Church of England Infants’ School was opened in Maple Road. Two years later – Penge having grown considerably – the original school had become so crowded that a separate girls’ school was started next to the infants’, separated from it by a moveable partition. The Croydon Road building continued as a boys’ school.

The condition of the boys’ school buildings deteriorated considerably over the years and – being beyond repair – were finally closed at the end of 1937, a hundred years after the original chapel had opened. The girls’ school closed at the same time and the Maple Road building became St John’s Junior Mixed and Infants’ School, later known as St John’s Church of England Primary School.

This school continued in its collection of 19^th and 20^th century buildings until it moved into its current accommodation in 1978.