St. Mary In The Castle School

In 1837 the Rev J S Jenkinson of St Mary In The Castle built a new school at Portland Place with separate departments for boys, girls and infants. The school was affiliated to the National Society in 1840

A new building was erected next door in c1842 to house the boys' and girls' departments and on 25 April 1848 the new girls' school was opened on the opposite side of the road. In 1877 the Rev Thomas Vores opened the new Vores Memorial Infant School, which had been built on the site of the original 1837 building. George Williams laid the foundation stone on 7 July 1896 of the new boys' and girls' schools (built on the site of the 1842 building, adjacent to the infants' school) in Portland Place; the schools were opened on 18 February 1897, and the site of the old girls' school opposite was sold to John Lester in 1897

The school purchased the adjacent property (6 Portland Place - formerly part of 1 Spring Gardens) to form an extension to the playground in 1903.

On 1 January 1926 the girls' school was closed and amalgamated with the boys' school to form the St Mary-in-the-Castle Senior Mixed School; the infants' school remained unchanged, closing at some point in the late 1940s.

In 1953; it became the Headquarters for the Civil Defence Corps until their dissolution in 1968.