Shoreditch College Archives

Shoreditch Training College was a teacher training institution for teachers of handicrafts.  Its origins date back to the 1900s when London County Council set up a scholarship scheme for pupil teachers in handicraft.  In 1907 this scheme became a department of the Shoreditch Technical Institute in Pitfield Street, London.

In 1919, the Board of Education awarded training college status, and the department was renamed Shoreditch Training College. 

In 1951, the College moved to Englefield Green in Surrey.  In the 1960s the first BEd degree course was validated and the College's name changed to Shoreditch College of Education, becoming a leading teacher training institution in the field of Craft, Design & Technology (CDT). It merged with Brunel University in 1980.

Holdings in brief

Papers of the Academic Boards, college newsletters and magazines 1920s-1970s, photographs, college ephemera, craft and design book collection, records of the Cooper's Hill site.

NB The Royal Engineering College (RIEC) offered engineering training on the Runnymede campus on Cooper's Hill Lane between 1871 and 1906.  The archives were housed on the campus until 1991 when they were transferred to the India Office Collections of the British Library.

You can view the profiles of Shoreditch College students who died in WW1 and WW2, in our online library resources.