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The Charity School of St Nicholas was founded by Dame Eleanor Allan by deed of gift on 20 February 1705, which endowed the income from a farm of 130 acres at Wallsend for its support. A year after her death on 21 January 1708, the school was formally opened for 40 boys and 20 girls.
The location of the original premises of the school is not known, but in 1786 Newcastle Corporation provided a site in Manor Chare for a new building. It remained there until 1821 when it moved to the Clergy Jubilee School in Carliol Square. In 1860, the Clergy Jubilee School was turned into a ‘trade school’ and, shortly afterwards, the St Nicholas Charity School was provided with separate buildings in Rosemary Lane.
In 1877, with the assent of the Charity Commissioners, the school was completely reorganised as Dame Allan's Endowed Schools with a board of governors, a Grammar School curriculum, and permission to admit fee-paying pupils. A new building was erected in 1882 in College Street where the school remained until it moved in 1935 to its present location in Fenham.
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