| Individual or organisational biography | Camberwell School of Arts and Crafts was opened on 10 January 1898 in premises adjoining the South London Art Gallery. It was established by the Technical Education Board of the London County Council in a building provided by the Vestry of Camberwell, and aimed 'to give the best artistic and technical education to all classes in the district', 'supplement knowledge gained by craftsmen in workshops' and 'help the craftsman become the designer of his own work'. The school and gallery were the fruition of a movement for the foundation of an artistic centre in Camberwell, supported by Edward Burne-Jones, Lord Leighton, Walter Crane and G F Watts. The school enrolled 198 students, mostly part-time, for the first session. The school offered evening technical classes in architecture, cabinet design, embroidery, wood carving, wood block and stencil cutting; trade classes in masonry and stone carving, plasterwork, house painting and decorating and an evening art school giving classes in elementary drawing and design, life classes and modelling. The demand for places in the school grew continuously and an extension was opened in 1904 enabling further courses to be added including brickwork, plumbing and typography. A further major extension was completed in 1913 providing rooms and studios for a wide range of courses, including sculpture, pottery, drawing and painting and a new library.
Between its foundation and the Second World War the school provided a wide range of courses, mainly for those employed in the building and printing trades and in the manufacture of pottery and furniture. By 1913 courses offered by the school were divided into four, mainly vocational areas, comprising printing and book production, construction and decoration of buildings, embroidery and dressmaking and jewellery, silversmithing and enamelling. After 1913 there was a gradual movement away from the trade courses (with the exception of printing and typographical design) to an increasing emphasis on the fine arts and design, with the establishment of the Fine Art Department in the inter-war years. Several building trade subjects were dropped from the curriculum between 1913 and 1930, and under Stanley Thorogood, Principal from 1920 to 1938, the study of drawing and painting, commercial art and crafts such as pottery, dressmaking and embroidery was extended.
The number of full-time students increased from about 40 before the Second World War to nearly 400 by 1948. After the war the school concentrated on providing courses on fewer subjects, with the main fields of study being painting, sculpture, illustration, graphic design, printed and woven textile design, pottery, printing and bookbinding. A new sculpture building was opened in 1953, providing new workshops for modelling in clay, bronze casting, plaster casting, stone and wood carving. By 1963 the work of the school was organised into three departments, Painting and Sculpture, Design and Crafts and Printing and Bookbinding, and this had increased to eight by 1968.
Between 1966 and 1971 additional accommodation was opened in Meeting House Lane and Lyndhurst Grove, and a purpose-built sculpture annexe was completed in 1969. A new building on an adjoining site was opened in 1973, providing a further 42 studio workshops and classrooms, new assembly and lecture halls, library and common rooms. In 1976 the former premises of Wilson School was taken over by the school, allowing a number of smaller annexes to be relinquished. Degree courses in silversmithing and metalwork were introduced in 1976.
In January 1986 the school became a constituent college of the London Institute, formed by the Inner London Education Authority associating its art schools and specialist colleges of printing, fashion and distributive trades into a collegiate structure. In 1989 Camberwell was renamed Camberwell College of Arts, and the courses were organised into two schools, one of Applied and Graphic Arts and the other of Art History and Conservation. In 1993 the London Institute was granted the right to award degrees in its own name, and in 2003 became a university. In 2004 the London Institute became known as the University of Arts London. In 2018 the College extended and refurbished the 1970s buildings, this included a larger library, a lecture theatre and more creative studios for students to work in.
Teachers at Camberwell have included William Coldstream, Rodney Burn, Frank Bowling, Lawrence Gowing, John Minton, W T Monnington, Victor Pasmore, Claude Rogers, William Townsend, Nigel Walters, Edward Ardizzone, Martin Bloch, Norah Braden, Helmut Ruhemann, Gilbert Spencer, Karel Vogel, Berthold Wolpe, John Buckland Wright and Dennis Young. |