About us

For more than 200 years, generations of students have received an education here on the site of Goldsmiths.

In 1792 the Counter Hill Academy opened its doors in New Cross, in a house built by Deptford distiller, William Goodhew. The Royal Naval School then bought the site, building what is now our Richard Hoggart Building in 1843.

The Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths acquired the school and reopened it in 1891 as The Goldsmiths’ Company’s Technical and Recreative Institute. With the dawn of the twentieth century, the Company handed over the Institute to the University of London. It was re-christened Goldsmiths College and the modern era of Goldsmiths had begun.

Our roots – two centuries of educational legacy
The Counter Hill Academy, a private boarding school for boys, stood on the site of modern day Goldsmiths from 1792 until 1838. After the Academy closed, the Royal Naval School bought the site. Over the next five decades they provided an education to the sons of officers in the Royal Navy and Royal Marines.

The Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths, one of the most powerful of London’s ‘City Livery Companies’, purchased the site and buildings after the Naval School moved out in 1889. Two years later, The Goldsmiths’ Company’s Technical and Recreative Institute opened.

For 13 years, the Company ran a hugely successful operation. At its peak over 7,000 male and female students were enrolled, drawn from the ‘industrial and working classes’ of the New Cross area.

Our learning curve - how Goldsmiths’ academic portfolio has developed
The Technical and Recreative Institute offered a range of classes in the arts and sciences. Many of these led to City and Guilds or other awards. The Goldsmiths Company had established the School of Art as part of their Institute and continued to fund it after the College was created. The School began to shift focus towards fine arts, to distinguish itself from the trade and craft-based institutions found in London at the time.

At first, few art students sat exams or received any qualification at the end of their course. Nevertheless, the College produced many noted artists including the nationally recognised ‘Goldsmiths School’ of etchers, and the war artist Graham Sutherland. As the twentieth century progressed, art education became more academic.

By the early 1960s, we were teaching highly respected Diploma courses in painting, sculpture and textiles. In the pre- and post-war years, the Goldsmiths’ Evening Department made up the other main part of the College. The Department offered predominantly non-vocational courses, maintaining the traditions of the original Goldsmiths Institute. The wide range of study on offer hinted at the explosion of choice in the decades to come.

Throughout the 1960s and 1970s our portfolio of degree courses expanded as the number of students grew. Subjects that had been taught as part of teacher training evolved into degree programmes in their own right. By the start of the 1980s we were offering undergraduate and postgraduate studies across the arts and humanities, and student numbers had more than doubled.

In 1988 Goldsmiths became a full School of the University of London and in 2004 we celebrated 100 years as part of the University. In 2008, we were placed in the top 35 of research-intensive universities. This ranking, together with our position in 9th place for world-leading 4* grade work testifies to the quality of our research activities.

The 2012-13 World University Rankings recognised our world-leading status in the field of Arts and Humanities. The Rankings placed us in the world’s top 100 institutions for these subjects and the UK’s top 20 for the third year in a row. At the same time we were named in the CUG league tables in the UK’s top ten for our Art & Design and Communication & Media Studies programmes.

Today we actively encourage close links between our departments so students can learn in a fertile interdisciplinary atmosphere. This allows us to develop new programmes and new research opportunities that lead the way in contemporary academic thinking.