East Dulwich changed its character very rapidly in the decade after 1870 from rural farmland to a Victorian lower-middle/upper-working class suburb.

Developers and freeholders were inconsistent in their provision of services and facilities, but the provision of state education was the responsibility of the mighty London Schools Board. 

Heber Primary School, built on a typical industrial scale, and to a design familiar throughout London, was opened in 1886, providing over 1600 school places.