Hackney Downs School
| Established | 1876 |
|---|---|
| Closed | 1995 |
| Type | Grammar then Comprehensive |
| Founder | Worshipful Company of Grocers |
| Location |
Downs Park Road Lower Clapton Greater London E5 8NP England  Coordinates: 51°33′06″N 0°03′43″W / 51.5516°N 0.0620°W |
| Local authority | Hackney |
| DfE URN | 100276 Tables |
| Gender | Mixed |
Hackney Downs School was a comprehensive secondary school, located near Hackney Downs off the A104 north of Hackney town centre, in the London Borough of Hackney.
It was founded in 1876 as The Grocers' Company's School. On its transfer to the London County Council in 1906 the school was renamed Hackney Downs School (formerly the Grocers' Company's School).
As a grammar school, it won an excellent reputation, with alumni including Nobel prize-winning playwright the late Harold Pinter, fellow playwright and actor Steven Berkoff, 1960s tycoon John Bloom, and athletics administrator Sir Arthur Gold. Many famous medical men attended including kidney transplant pioneer Ralph Shackman and pioneering nutritionist John Yudkin. Three current members of the House of Lords are former pupils: (Lord Levy, Lord Feldman and Lord Clinton-Davis). It had 600 boys with a sixth-form entry by the early 1970s.
In September 1969, it became a comprehensive school, and inherited more than its share of the problems of this deprived inner-city borough. It had voted to become comprehensive in 1969. Just before its closure, over 70 percent of the boys spoke English as a second language, half came from households with no-one in employment, and half the intake had reading ages three years below average.
Things came to a head in the 1990s, when the school made national news by being described by the then Conservative government as the 'worst school in Britain'. Eventually, as a result of direct government pressure, the school was forced to close in 1995.
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