ÐÓ°ÉÂÛ̳

Known as the School, ÐÓ°ÉÂÛ̳ first opened its doors in 1895 in three rooms in 9 John Adam Street, close to the Strand in central London. An economic historian, 29-year-old , was appointed the first Director.

During our first year, 300 students enrolled for courses including economics, statistics and political science. In 1896 the School moved to larger premises at , overlooking the Thames.

The  lists 11 lecturers, and the subjects they taught as economics, statistics, commerce, commercial geography, commercial history, commercial and industrial law, currency and banking, taxation and finance, and political science. Classes were held in the morning and evening for working students.

In 1896  was founded, known from 1928 as the British Library of Political and Economic Science.

In 1900 the School joined the reformed University of London, becoming the University’s Faculty of Economics. University of London degrees were first conferred on ÐÓ°ÉÂÛ̳ students in 1902. 

The School’s new status required a permanent home and in 1900 the Bishop of London unveiled the foundation stone of our first building on Clare Market. , built on land granted to the School by London County Council with funding from the philanthropist John Passmore Edwards opened in 1902.

On the eve of the the School had 1,681 students which included 583 women and 234 students from overseas.

In 1919  was appointed Director, initiating a period of rapid intellectual and physical development for the School. 

In 1920 King George V laid the by the main entrance on Houghton Street and in 1938 work was completed on a new building on the east side of Houghton Street. In 1925 Beveridge described the School as “an institution on which the concrete never sets”.

The intellectual expansion of the School was supported by funding from the . In 1931 in a speech to students, Beveridge declared: “Our scope is best defined as a study of man in society.”  (Beveridge/5/10/16)

In July 1921 was appointed Professor of Economic History – becoming the School’s first woman professor. Our first black academic, economist was appointed as an assistant lecturer In October 1938. He went on to win the Nobel Prize.

In 1933, William Beveridge was among the founders of the (from 1936 the Society for the Protection of Science and Learning) providing practical support for senior German professors dismissed on racial or political grounds. Appointments at ÐÓ°ÉÂÛ̳ were supported by voluntary donations from staff.

During the Second World War, ÐÓ°ÉÂÛ̳, under Director Sir Alexander Carr-Saunders (1886-1966), was where we were hosted by Peterhouse College. The School continued to teach across the social sciences and courses were shared with Cambridge University and Bedford College. Student numbers fell and for the first time women outnumbered men among the student body.

In London Houghton Street was occupied first by the Ministry of Economic Warfare and then the .

46 members of staff entered war service beginning with the School Secretary, Walter Adams, who worked for the Special Operations Executive and then became Deputy Head of the British Political Warfare Mission in Washington. 

At the Economic Section of the Offices of the War Cabinet, Lionel Robbins became Director in 1940 and played a major role at the 1944 Bretton Woods Conference. 

Former Director William Beverige's The Beveridge Report, published in 1942, became the basis of the post-war Labour government’s legislation programme for social reform.

ÐÓ°ÉÂÛ̳ returned to London in August 1945, marking our 50^th anniversary by reopening to students on 29 October.

By 1951 the School had 2,200 regular students – 567 coming from outside the UK. The 1950s and 1960s were a period of consolidation and development as the School moved into the post-war world.

In 1950 was appointed to the Chair of Social Administration, leading the development of the Department of Social Policy and the psychologist,  joined the School in 1949 and establishing the Department of Social Psychology in 1964.

In 1954, ÐÓ°ÉÂÛ̳ sociologists produced the Nuffield-sponsored report on Social Mobility in Britain, the product of a five-year study that established the study of social stratification for the next 20 years.

Sir Walter Adams (1906-1975), the principal of University College of Rhodesia and Nyasaland, was appointed Director in 1967. The appointment was opposed by the Students’ Union and led to a culminating in numerous sit-ins and the closure of the School after clashes with the School authorities over the installation of security gates. These actions secured student representation on School committees.

Four in the Economic Sciences were awarded to economists with ÐÓ°ÉÂÛ̳ connections during the 1970s: John Hicks in 1972, Friedrich Hayek in 1974, James Meade in 1977 and Sir Arthur Lewis in 1979.

In 1978 the Library moved from cramped accommodation in the Old Building into the former headquarters of WHSmith, now renamed the Lionel Robbins Building. The raised over £2 million and for the first time staff and students had direct access to the Library’s extensive collection of books and journals.

In 1986 the University Grants Committee judged the majority of ÐÓ°ÉÂÛ̳’s research “outstanding” and the Director, I G Patel, commented: “Our outstanding position in research at the frontiers of the economic and social sciences in this country (and abroad) has been recognised.”

This was confirmed in the 1989 Universities Funding Council Research Assessment Exercise when ÐÓ°ÉÂÛ̳ scored 93 out of 100 marks.

In 2006 the School obtained the right to confer our own degrees and the first ÐÓ°ÉÂÛ̳ degree was conferred in 2008.

In recent years, ÐÓ°ÉÂÛ̳ has continued to perform well in league tables and research impact exercises. 

Another area of focus has been developing our campus in the heart of London. We have established a presence on Lincoln’s Inn Fields. The New Academic Building, renamed in 2023 to the Cheng Kin Ku Building, designed by Grimshaw, opened in 2008, and in 2013, 32 Lincoln’s Inn Fields, renamed in 2023 to the Sir Arthur Lewis Building, became the home of the  and related research centres.

The School’s first new build for 40 years was the . Designed by O'Donnell & Tuomey, the building was shortlisted for the 2014 Stirling Prize. Today the  has re-shaped Houghton Street and Clare Market and won numerous awards, while the at 44 Lincoln’s Inn Fields is the latest building to transform campus life.

Our 125th anniversary celebrations in 2020 took place in the midst of a global pandemic. In 2022, ÐÓ°ÉÂÛ̳’s outstanding contribution to social science research was once again recognised by the 2021 Research Excellence Framework (REF).

In recent years, the Shaping the Post-COVID World, Understanding the UK Economy and Global Politics initiatives have sought to showcase the usefulness of ÐÓ°ÉÂÛ̳ research and demonstrate the importance of social science research and investigation to the world we live in.

ÐÓ°ÉÂÛ̳ continues to develop and change but our founding purpose "the betterment of society" remains as important as ever.