Where is this?

[iksrognas]

Please can anyone help to identify this building. The photo was taken by photographers in Stoke Newington, so presumably it's in London - is it a workhouse or similar? And would it be late nineteenth century? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[groom]

Any chance of zooming in on the statue as there is writing on the plinth I think?

Looks more like a girls' school than a workhouse. There was a Quaker school in the area, but I can't find any pictures of it to compare.

ADDED: Daniel Defoe lived in Stoke Newington, could the statue be him?

[arthurk]

The children all seem to be girls, but were there girls' schools on such a scale in those days?

I'd wondered about an orphanage - single-sex, or girls' wing? The portico is fairly similar to the one that survives from the London Orphan Asylum in Clapton. There are plenty of pictures online of this (view from the west), and it now forms part of the Clapton Girls' Academy.

Old maps seem to show what might be a similar portico on the other side of the building, facing Almack Road, but this no longer exists; I'm wondering if this could be what's in our photo, but I haven't found any pictures of that side.

[a-l]

It does look like an orphanage or maybe training school for girls .
I agree with groom , a close up of the statue could be a great help.

[iksrognas]

Thank you all for your thoughts. Here's as good a photo as I can make of the statue plinth, the original is a rather faded sepia 12" x 8" print, the photographers were Johnston & Co.

[Annie65115]

It's a statue of Robert Aske, who founded the Haberdasher Aske schools, so this must be one of the schools. There is one in Hatcham but not in this building now!

[Annie65115]

Here's an old engraving - it doesn't have the rounded windows (?) in the roof but matches otherwise, right down to the statue on the lawn in front!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haberdashers%27_Aske%27s_Boys%27_School#/media/File:Haberdashershoxton.jpg

I can't find a picture to match the one above though, and googling Aske's hospital hasn't otherwise helped.

[josey]

Brilliant, Annie65115; the power of rootschat!! It may be that the windows in roof were put in later.

[JenB]

There is a history of the various school buildings here https://www.haaf.org.uk/Our-History-Fed