Hornsey School of Art, c1910

The Hornsey School of Art was one of the Government School of Art, opened in November 1882. Although the wisdom of the internet has the school as having been a private one, its official name was the Hornsey Government School of Art and contemporary press reports agree unequivocally that it was a government school. Government Schools of Art had their headquarters at the Government School of Art in South Kensington. The philosophy underlying the schools' foundation was 'the direct application of the arts to manufacturers'

The original building, shown in this photo, was on Crouch End Hill, between Waverley and Haselmere Roads. The photo is taken looking south from the junction of Waverley Road. Next door, the neighbouring building, on the corner of Haselmere Road, was a private House, called Oaklands. For the first two decades of the twentieth century, it was home to a German widow called Eliza Wolff. After her death in 1922, the house appears to have been used for a while by the church and renamed Mildmay Lodge. By 1930, it had been taken on by Hornsey Council for use by the Education and Employment departments. I assume this was related to the reorganisation of town hall space as the new building was being erected down the hill. By 1937 it had been taken on by the Art School.

The school was renamed Hornsey School  of Arts and Crafts in  about 1930, then to Hornsey College  of Arts and Crafts 1955.

in the 1930s a classical style building was built between Oaklands and the original Art School building. This became the known as the Main Building and is the only building from before 1960 that is now still standing. Both Oaklands and the original building were demolished after 1984 when the TUC took on the building as its National Education Centre.

1968 saw the the College's famous 'revolution'. It survived until 1973, when it moved out of Crouch End and joined Enfield Technical College and Hendon Technical College to become Middlesex Polytechnic.

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