I've posted on several occasions about the figures of schoolgirls and boys placed above the school entrance. They served not only to advertise the educational premises but also to model the school uniform - a real attraction for poor families who could not usually afford such clothes for their children. As saints had their attributes, so the schoolchildren carry their books. The girl also holds a book or parchment in her left hand with the date of the school's foundation, 1696. (The figures themselves are probably eighteenth-century.) It was St Andrew's Parochial School, originally located in Brook Market. After it moved to Hatton Garden, she and her friend took up their posts at the Cross Street entrance. Another pair still watch over the main entrance but these two were moved after the Second World War to the facade of St Andrew's Church.
Further reading: figures in Wapping, Rotherhithe and Hatton Garden.
