Names for the new house system to be introduced at Morpeth School, from September 2023, have been announced.

The five houses have been named after historical figures who lived within two miles of Bethnal Green in the London borough of Tower Hamlets, where the school is based.

They are:

A - Mendoza House

Named after Daniel Mendoza, a world-famous Jewish boxer from the 18th/19th century. Mendoza was born in July 1764. He lived at 3 Paradise Row, Bethnal Green (houses opposite the tube station).

• The long history of boxing in East London can be credited to Mendoza
• He professionalised the sport and introduced techniques still used today (such as feinting and blocking)
• He was the first Jewish person in Britain to become a national hero: he was the heavy weight champion between 1792 and 1795. He also published a very famous book, The Art of Boxing
• Mendoza died in September 1836, aged 72. 

B – Chapman House

Named after Sarah Chapman who led the match girls strike at Bryant & May match factory on Fairfield Road in Bow in 1888. This was the first organised strike for improved working conditions and was led solely by women, one year before the more publicised dockers strike of 1889. 

• Sarah was born in Mile End and then moved to Bethnal Green
• She was appalled at the low pay and dangers of work in the match factory 
• After the strike, she founded the Union of Women Matchmakers which in 1888 was the largest female trade union in Britain
• Chapman died in 1945 in Bethnal Green, and was buried in an unmarked grave. A campaign is now underway to have her grave commemorated with a proper headstone.

C - Pankhurst House

Named after Sylvia Pankhurst, a founding member of the WSPU or Suffragettes. Pankhurst was born in 1882 in Manchester, and started her campaign for women’s suffrage at 321 Roman Road. The Lord Morpeth pub was used by the Suffragettes for their meetings.

• The Suffragettes’ campaign was judged as effective; it created the conditions which meant that the introduction of female suffrage in 1918 was inevitable
• Pankhurt went on to campaign against the injustices of imperialism and wrote extensively about her views
• She died in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia in 1960.

D - Tull House

Named after Walter Tull, the first black officer in the British Army. Tull was born in 1888 and was brought up in an orphanage on the Approach Road.

• Tull was a gifted footballer and played professionally for Tottenham Hotspur 
• He overcame significant racism and was a widely respected sportsman on the outbreak of war
• He enlisted in August 1914 in to one of two Footballer’s Battalions 
• Tull served at the Battle of Somme 
• He was commissioned in May 1917, becoming the first black officer in the British Army
• Tull was killed on 25th March 1918. 

E - Jalal House

Named after Rajonuddin Jalal who led the Bangladesh Youth Movement in 1976. This movement campaigned tirelessly against racism and discrimination. In 1976, Jalal and friends founded the Bangladesh Youth Movement (BYM) at the Whitechapel Centre where they attended English classes. They set up a youth club where young Bangladeshis could talk about social issues and community affairs. ‘’If you go back to 1976, then you would find that the existence of the community was not really acknowledge in the wider arena and so having a youth movement as an organisation itself was an important achievement’’, says Jalal.