Creation of the Royal College of Science

In 1881 the Normal School of Science was established which quickly changed its name to the Royal College of Science. The title Normal had been intended by T.H. Huxley to indicate the high status of the School as in the Ecole Normale in Paris. This did not translate well into the English language and was altered in 1890. The main objective was to support the training of science teachers (other students were admitted) and to develop teaching in other science subjects alongside the Royal School of Mines earth sciences specialities.

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Creation of City and Guilds College

The Central Institution, later to become the City and Guilds College, was established by the City Livery Companies under the City and Guilds of London Institute. Unable to find a site in the City, they first set up the Finsbury Technical College. This was intended as a feeder school for the main College. As no other site became available in the City the CGLI were persuaded by General Sir John Donnelley, Secretary of the Science and Art Department, to build on land in South Kensington bought by the profits of the Great Exhibition of 1851 'for purposes of art and science' in perpetuity

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The Central Institution building was designed by Alfred Waterhouse, the architect responsible for the Natural History Museum. The City and Guilds Waterhouse building opened in 1884 and full time teaching began in 1885.

The Imperial Institute opened

The Imperial Institute was created in 1887 to celebrate Queen Victoria's Jubilee with the intention of it being a scientific research institution exploring and developing the raw materials of the Empire countries. It was administered by a Governing body with the then Prince of Wales as President. 

The Imperial Institute building was constructed in South Kensington between 1888 and 1893. Queen Victoria laid the foundation stone in 1888 and opened the building in 1893. The Institute building spanned from the Queen's Gate side, to where Mechanical Engineering now stands. It faced the Imperial College Road (which then was called the Imperial Institute Road and was open to traffic).

The Imperial Institute was designed by T. E. Collcutt in the neo-renaissance style. It was 700 feet long with a central tower (the Queen's Tower) and smaller towers at the east and west ends. It contained a library, laboratories, conference rooms and exhibition galleries with gardens at the rear.

City & Guilds Delegacy

Incorporating the City & Guilds College into Imperial College involved altering the Charters of the City & Guilds of London Institute, the City & Guild College’s parent body and Imperial. The C&G Delegacy replaced the temporary committee of management set up by the City and Guilds of London Institute until satisfactory negotiations regarding control were completed. 

The City & Guilds Delegacy was the outcome, comprising 19 members from the CGLI, the Goldsmith’s Company and Imperial’s Governing Body. It was responsible both to the CGLI and Imperial’s Governing Body for the administration of the C&GC. As all engineering subjects were deemed part of the C&GC, an Engineering Board was set up to advise Imperial’s Board of Studies. 

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Sir Walter Prideaux (1846-1928) Knight Clerk to the Goldsmith's Company, was one of the first members of the Governing Body and the Delegacy, serving 1907-1919.

Bessemer laboratory opens

The Bessemer Laboratory for Metallurgy, funded by the Bessemer Memorial Fund, opened in 1912.

It was established at the same time as the drive for a College such as Imperial and so deemed an integral part of the new institution.

Beit Buildings completed

 The original Students Union building in the north of the quad was designed by Sir Aston Webb and built in 1910-11. The idea for a building came from Sir Arthur Acland, a member of the governing body. He saw the need for a place in which students could meet and develop a collegiate social life. Sir Arthur 'emphasised the value in the life of students of a spirit of good comradeship, without which a student career was of little account'. 

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The east side was designed to house the departments of botany, plant pathology and physiology and was completed in 1914.

The College at war

By the outbreak of the First World War, there were approximately 900 students in college. Some 300 of them volunteered for war in 1914, joined by 60 staff members. 

The South Kensington site was affected by the commencement of hostilities with buildings commandeered for war billeting of soldiers and military work. The War Office pay office took over the top two floors of Goldsmith's extension and RSM rooms and the Army Pay Corps Machine Gun section commandeered the RSM examination hall. Admiralty Inventions & Research Board took over the Engineering Structures lab & hydraulics lab in Goldsmith's.

The Admiralty commandeered the Physics workshop for bomb sighting research. The Air board (royal flying corps) took over the Huxley building drawing office and printing press. The Air Ministry also operated from the engine testing house resulting in complaints of noise from their neighbors. 

Irish and Scots Guards Reservists also billeted soldiers in the RSM.