On a clear spring day in an inner-city neighbourhood, a large primary school, recently closed, stands as both a relic of the past and a sign of a contemporary social shift. For a century and a half, its imposing facade gathered and dispensed more than 200 local children every school day. They would stream in and out, through the bustle of the nearby market founded around the same time — their parents customers and acquaintances of the stallholders. During the school run, business would pick up and everyone seemed — even for those brief interludes — to behave better, because children were about.
The school, Colvestone, is in Hackney, east London. It is one of four schools that closed in the borough in 2024. Four more closed last year. But not even that accurately shows the declining numbers of schoolchildren here. Earlier this week, parents of four-year-olds across the UK learnt where their child has been accepted to primary school, but in the capital many seats will remain empty. Last year, it was roughly one in five places in Hackney alone — nearly 500 in all.
The falling numbers of children in London is mirrored across cities in Europe and the US. In Paris, primary school enrolment has fallen by a quarter in the past decade. First year elementary school enrolment in New York fell 18 per cent in the decade to autumn 2024, while in Barcelona, preschool entry (three to six years), the main entry point into the school system, fell 16 per cent between autumn 2016 and autumn 2024.