Morley Memorial College for Working Men and Women In the early 1880s, philanthropist
Emma Cons and her supporters took over the Royal Victoria Hall (the "
Old Vic"), a boozy, rowdy home of melodrama, and turned it into the Royal Victoria Coffee and Music Hall to provide inexpensive entertainment "purged of innuendo in word and action". The programme included music-hall turns with opera recitals,
temperance meetings, and, from 1882, lectures every Tuesday by eminent scientists. Local enthusiasm for these "penny lectures" and success in attracting substantial philanthropic funding, led in 1889 to the opening of Morley Memorial College for Working Men and Women. The college was founded by an endowment from
Samuel Morley, MP for
Nottingham and later
Bristol. Samuel Morley is buried at Dr Watts' Walk,
Abney Park Cemetery, in
Stoke Newington, London. The college was run separately from the Theatre, but held its classes and student meetings back-stage and in the theatre dressing rooms. The two split in the 1920s, when Emma's niece and successor
Lilian Baylis raised funds to acquire a separate site nearby. It attracted some intellectual celebrities such as
Virginia Woolf. Around the same time as the founding of Morley College (c.1880s), concern for the education of working people led to the establishment of other institutions in south London such as the forerunner of the
South London Gallery. The original Victorian college building was extended by Sir
Edward Maufe in 1937. The Victorian building was destroyed in
the Blitz in 1940 but Maufe's 1930s extension survived. The remains of the Victorian building were cleared and a new college building designed by Charles Cowles-Voysey and Brandon Jones was completed in 1958 and opened by Queen Elizabeth, The Queen Mother. It was decorated with murals by
Edward Bawden,
John Piper (artist) and
Martin Froy. A further bronze curtain-wall extension followed in 1973, designed by
John Winter, and another in 1982 clad in corrugated
Corten steel, on the eastern side of King Edward's Walk.
Sloane School The Sloane School had about 500 boys and was a
grammar school on Hortensia Road in Chelsea. It was named after Sir
Hans Sloane (1660–1753), after whom
Sloane Square was named in 1771. The school library was opened on 25 November 1931 by Sir
Hugh Walpole. It was administered by
London County Council. From 1929 until 1961, the headmaster was Guy Boas (9 December 1896 – 26 March 1966), who encouraged much-acclaimed productions of
Shakespeare. The school magazine was
The Cheynean. Sloane School merged in 1970 with the nearby Carlyle School, to become
Pimlico Comprehensive School, and Pimlico Academy since 2008. The buildings became Chelsea Secondary School. It then became a part of Kensington and Chelsea College in 1990.
Notable alumni •
Cyril Aldred (1914–1991), art historian •
Frank Branston (1939–2009), journalist • Sir
Frederick Burden (1905–1987), Conservative MP for
Gillingham, 1950–83 •
David Caminer (1915–2008), systems analyst; helped design
LEO, the world's first business computer •
Spartacus Chetwynd (b. 1973), Turner Prize nominee artist •
John Creasey (1908–1973), writer •
Tony Dyson •
John Fraser, Labour MP for
Norwood, 1966–97 •
Stephen Greif, actor •
Steve Hackett, musician •
Johnny Harris, actor •
George Innes, actor •
Donald James, born Donald Wheal, author •
Alan Johnson, Labour MP for
Kingston upon Hull West and Hessle since 1997 •
Rhys Lloyd, Baron Lloyd of Kilgerran, Liberal •
Malcolm Macdonald, footballer •
John Martin-Dye, swimmer at 1960 and 1964 Olympics • Sir
Bernard Miller, chairman of the
John Lewis Partnership, 1955–72 •
Jeremy Spenser, actor • Prof
Carel Weight CBE (1908–1997), painter and professor of painting at the
Royal College of Art, 1957–73
Carlyle School This was the analogous female school of the Sloane School, a girls'
grammar school, whose former buildings became the Sloane School, having been built in 1908. Its buildings were extended in 1937, being officially opened on 4 February 1938. It had a separate governing body from the Sloane School from 1961. It had around 350 girls.
Notable alumni •
Linda Bassett, actress •
Mary Harron, Canadian film director; dated
Tony Blair, former music critic; screenwriter; directed
American Psycho, also co-writing the screenplay, and attended with her sister Martha, both daughters of
Don Harron •
Jacqueline Wheldon (1924–1993), author
Kensington and Chelsea College Kensington and Chelsea College (KCC) was established in 1990, by the
Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, from a merger of parts of two former institutions. It initially operated from the former Sloane and Carlyle School buildings in Chelsea (see above) and from centres in North Kensington, South Kensington and Notting Hill, together with an evening class programme in
Holland Park School. In 1993, the college became an independent Further Education corporation, following implementation of the Further and Higher Education Act 1992. The college's first three principals each made a distinctive contribution to its development. Michael Baber, the first principal, laid the foundations for its long-term development. He successfully steered the transition from Local Authority College to freestanding Further Education Corporation, including negotiating freehold ownership of previously shared use sites while developing a strategic partnership with the Local Authority (which included providing its adult education programme and partnership in regeneration projects in North Kensington). Under his leadership the college tripled in size, received a positive inspection report and became the first College in inner London to achieve Investors in People recognition. The college's second Principal, Joanna Gaukroger, was the driving force behind the plan to build a flagship centre at the Chelsea site. part funded by sale of some of the existing College estate. She also used her previous experience as an inspector, to help the college achieve a successful inspection at a time when inspection criteria had become more rigorous, as well as expanding the college's vocational programme. Mike Jutsum, the college's third Principal, added a significant new dimension to its work by securing contracts to provide education in prisons and a young offenders institution in West London. This greatly expanded its educational role while also significantly increasing its income. Although the contract wasn't permanent it provided a valuable financial breathing space at a challenging economic time for Colleges nationally. It was during this period that the new Chelsea Centre, set in motion by his predecessor, was completed. The progress achieved in the college's formative years was clearly due to more than a few individuals, however influential they may have been, i.e. to many managers, lecturers and support staff across the college and over many years. The contribution of lecturers in particular is clear from the inspection reports cited above. In 2016, the borough announced that it had bought the college's Wornington Campus in North Kensington and planned to redevelop the site for housing, causing widespread opposition from the local community. The
Grenfell Tower fire the following year caused further issues, as the building was used by survivors of the deadly fire. Further campaigning and criticism of the council led to their sale of the college campus to the government in 2019, at a loss of £18 million. The college's long-term future was secured in February 2020 when it merged with Morley College. This was part of a deal to secure the future of adult and FE education previously provided by KCC. The KCC campuses turned into Morley College campuses. ==Campuses and facilities==