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.