Arts University Plymouth 170-year timeline

<p dir="ltr">In <strong>February 1855</strong>, a Committee of Management was established for what would become the Plymouth Drawing School, with <strong>George Jago</strong>, Master of the Plymouth Free School in Cobourg Street, appointed as its correspondent.</p> <p dir="ltr">Jago’s early correspondence makes the purpose unambiguous: teaching <strong>architecture and mechanical drawing</strong>, and drawing <strong>as applied to shipbuilding</strong>. From the outset, the School’s ambition was civic as well as educational, rooted in Plymouth’s public life and shaped by national approaches to art and design teaching.</p> <p dir="ltr">The school opened in rented rooms at <strong>37 Park Street on 21 January 1856</strong>, secured by <strong>William Eastlake</strong>, with <strong>John J. Offord</strong> hired as drawing master. From the start, it served different lives and working patterns: <strong>morning and afternoon classes for gentlemen and ladies</strong>, and <strong>evening classes for those who had to work</strong>.</p> <p dir="ltr">Early support was both civic and national in scale. <strong>Sir Charles Lock Eastlake</strong> subscribed, and <strong>H.R.H. Prince Albert</strong> became patron. <strong>Sir Robert Collier, M.P.</strong> was elected president.</p> <p>Within a year the school outgrew Park Street and moved to the <strong>Brethren Chapel</strong>, a Primitive Methodist Chapel on<strong> Ebrington Street</strong>. A dispute led to Offord’s departure and the school closed for around four years, before reopening in <strong>1863</strong> in the <strong>Assembly Rooms at the Royal Hotel, George Street</strong>, with <strong>Thomas Holmes</strong> brought in as drawing master. By <strong>May 1865</strong>, student numbers were reported at <strong>around 310</strong>.</p>

<p dir="ltr">In <strong>1871</strong>, <strong>Henry Richard Babb</strong> became principal, serving until <strong>1911</strong>. He was an accomplished painter and twice won the national headmaster competition for art at the South Kensington Department of Art.</p> <p dir="ltr">In <strong>1886</strong> the school moved to <strong>Princess Square</strong>, described as the fashionable heart of Plymouth.</p> <p dir="ltr">Princess Square also sat within Plymouth’s civic centre, named after a visit by <strong>Princess Victoria</strong>. Local histories place the School of Art within this setting, close to civic institutions including the <strong>Plymouth Athenaeum</strong>, and associate the area with the work of architect <strong>John Foulston</strong>. The School is described as unusually well equipped for the time, with dedicated rooms for antiques, life and still-life painting (in oil and watercolour), carving and modelling in clay, alongside technical arts linked to the national Science and Art system centred on South Kensington. The emphasis on plentiful <strong>light and air</strong> was not incidental: it signalled that art education belonged in the city’s public heart, supported and valued as a civic good.</p> <p dir="ltr">Work began in <strong>1887</strong> on the <strong>Jubilee Memorial Science, Art and Technical School Building</strong> on <strong>Tavistock Road</strong>, which opened in <strong>1892</strong> and became the School of Art’s headquarters. The building was designed by the city architect <strong>Mr Shortridge</strong>, with the School of Art occupying the <strong>north end</strong>, built for art teaching with <strong>high studio windows</strong>.</p><h3 dir="ltr"><strong>1894: an early marker of higher education in the arts</strong></h3> <p dir="ltr">In <strong>1894</strong>, <strong>Mr B. Priestly Shires</strong> delivered a course of lectures on the <strong>history of architecture</strong> for students working towards <strong>R.I.B.A. examinations</strong>. This is believed to be the institution’s first recorded offering of higher education-level courses.</p> <p dir="ltr">In <strong>1914</strong>, Plymouth, Devonport and Stonehouse were amalgamated to form the City of Plymouth. In <strong>1919</strong>, the School was renamed <strong>Plymouth Municipal School of Art</strong>, reflecting a growing civic commitment to arts education across the city.<br /></p>

<p dir="ltr">By <strong>1924</strong>, the need for a permanent home separate from science and technical provision was being discussed by <strong>E. Chandler Cook</strong>, Secretary of Education for Plymouth.</p> <p>In <strong>1925</strong>, the city purchased the <strong>Shute Park estate</strong> between <strong>Glanville</strong> and <strong>Hallwell Streets</strong>, explicitly to provide a permanent home for the art school. An architectural rendering drawn by city architect <strong>A.V. Rooke</strong> is held in the Plymouth Archives.</p>

<p dir="ltr">The interwar and post-war decades were testing years. In the 1930s, the School of Art asserted its independence within a crowded further education landscape, securing national recognition for its <strong>Department of Architecture</strong>, which achieved <strong>intermediate R.I.B.A. examination status</strong>. This placed Plymouth among a very small number of art schools in Britain whose architecture students did not need to sit the usual mid-course professional exams.</p> <p dir="ltr">Leadership under <strong>Lewis Duckett</strong> from 1936 brought clarity of purpose and a broad, practice-led curriculum spanning painting, printing, weaving, pottery, signwriting and commercial art. Space was scarce and frequently contested, but standards were not. Annual exhibitions, outreach activity and a growing reputation for teaching drew students from across the region.</p> <p>The Second World War disrupted teaching and buildings across the city, but the School endured. From <strong>1949</strong>, it operated from <strong>Palace Court near the Barbican</strong>, and was renamed <strong>Plymouth College of Art and Crafts</strong>. Courses were distributed across multiple annexes to secure daylight, specialist facilities and continuity of learning. In the post-war rebuild of Plymouth, the School’s persistence mirrored the city’s own determination to recover, adapt and modernise.</p>

<p dir="ltr">In <strong>1965</strong>, the institution was renamed <strong>Plymouth College of Art and Design</strong>.</p> <p dir="ltr">Fashion and textiles teaching developed in this period, including classes led by <strong>Anna Hillman</strong> at <strong>Plymleigh House, Laira</strong>, focused on design ability and garment-making skills including pattern cutting and grading.</p> <p dir="ltr">In <strong>1967</strong>, Plymouth College of Art and Design started a course in <strong>educational filmmaking</strong>, noted as the origin of today’s film and animation provision.</p> <p dir="ltr">Space was fragmented across the city, with specialist locations and annexes including <strong>Wolsdon Street</strong> (photography) and <strong>Rowe Street</strong> (pottery, fashion and textiles, later jewellery), alongside other temporary premises.</p> <p dir="ltr">Construction began at <strong>Tavistock Place in 1969</strong>, designed by city architect <strong>Mr H. J. W. Sterling</strong>. The plan was initially for nine storeys but reduced to five to strengthen the funding case (reported cost: <strong>£300,000</strong>). The build was disrupted when the contractor went bankrupt in <strong>October 1971</strong>, before the local authority completed the project.</p> <p>The building opened in <strong>September 1973</strong> and was formally dedicated in <strong>1974</strong>. One detail from the period captures the spirit of the place: students were said to have <strong>danced on the building site</strong>, throwing streamers and balloons to celebrate the start of the build.</p>

<p dir="ltr">From the mid-1970s, the College navigated changing national policy, funding pressures and structural reform while continuing to expand its creative offer. Student activism and staff leadership shaped this period, including protests against proposed studio fees and grant cuts, reflecting a culture that valued access, making and shared ownership of learning.</p> <p dir="ltr">Under principals including <strong>Barry Howgate</strong>, <strong>Mike Brindley</strong>, <strong>Alan Kennedy</strong> and <strong>Lynne Staley-Brookes</strong>, the College strengthened provision across craft, graphic design, photography and fashion, achieving national approvals to run multiple specialist courses at a time when few institutions were permitted to do so. In the early 1990s, the College became independent of local authority control, later securing <strong>Open University validation</strong> for its degrees, marking a significant step in academic autonomy.</p> <p>Facilities and public presence grew steadily. New buildings and courtyards were added, gallery spaces expanded, and by the mid-2000s inspection reports recorded clear improvement in quality and outcomes. In <strong>2008</strong>, the institution reaffirmed its identity by returning to the name <strong>Plymouth College of Art</strong>, closing a long chapter of consolidation and positioning itself for the next phase of ambition.</p>

<p dir="ltr">Since <strong>2009</strong>, the institution has hosted the biennial <strong><a href="https://www.aup.ac.uk/research/supported-projects/making-futures">Making Futures</a><a href="https://www.aup.ac.uk/research/supported-projects/making-futures">™</a></strong> conference in Plymouth, convening an international community around craft, materially led practice and fabrication technologies.</p> <p dir="ltr">In <strong>2014</strong>, the institution built an £8m Craft, Design and Fabrication Workshops, bringing together specialist spaces for glass, ceramics, jewellery, textiles and digital fabrication. This included establishing a Fab Lab in Plymouth, connecting the city to global thinking in digital fabrication and local production.</p> <p dir="ltr">In <strong>2019</strong>, Plymouth became the UK’s first city to join the <strong>Fab City</strong> network, with Plymouth College of Art identified as a core partner alongside Plymouth City Council, the University of Plymouth and Real Ideas.</p> <p dir="ltr">From <strong>2010 </strong><strong>to</strong><strong> 2021</strong>, <strong><a href="https://www.aup.ac.uk/people/professor-andrew-brewerton">Professor Andrew Brewerton</a></strong> led a period of consolidation and ambition, strengthening academic standing, developing platforms such as Making Futures and Fab Lab Plymouth, and guiding the institution towards the award of university title in 2022.</p> <p dir="ltr">In <strong>2022</strong>, Plymouth College of Art was granted university title and became <strong>Arts University Plymouth</strong>, reflecting an expanded teaching, research and civic mission. With <strong><a href="https://www.aup.ac.uk/people/paul-fieldsend-danks">Professor Paul Fieldsend-Danks</a></strong> appointed as its first Vice-Chancellor, Arts University Plymouth entered a new phase of clarity, confidence and civic engagement.</p> <p>By <strong>2025</strong>, the renaming of the Fab Lab to <strong><a href="https://www.aup.ac.uk/research/supported-projects/fab-lab-south-west">Fab Lab South West</a></strong> reaffirmed the lab’s regional role and its connection to Plymouth’s Fab City status.</p> <p>In <strong>2026</strong>, Arts University Plymouth founded the <a href="https://www.aup.ac.uk/research/centre-for-circular-materials"><strong>Centre for Circular Materials</strong></a>, a research hub dedicated to how materials are chosen, used and kept in circulation across creative practice, design fabrication, and partnerships.</p>