History of our School

Frederick Bremer School has been established to develop the rich economic and enterprise heritage of this area of Walthamstow into the 21st Century. Our school is built on the former Hawker Siddeley site, which was a 9.5 acre industrial centre opened in 1919.

It was here that huge transformers were built which powered the economic transformation of industry in the 20th century, as well as transformed this local area as a hub of employment, skills and enterprise.

The school was designed to celebrate and consolidate this engineering past. It was named after a local entrepreneur who invented the first petrol driven car in 1894, which he drove around the local streets of Walthamstow. He never put this design into mass production, and hence never made his fortune, but he was motivated purely by the curiosity of what was possible to achieve.

The car was donated to Walthamstow Museum in 1933 by Frederick Bremer who wanted local children to take pride that such a thing was built in Walthamstow. It is still on display today.

Against this rich context of engineering and endeavour, this school was designed. It is a state of the art £20 million building designed around the engineering theme to develop modern teaching techniques with an emphasis on STEM development.

The building was also designed with pupil safety and well-being at the heart, and with particular thought to preventing bullying inside and outside the building.