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Former names | Borough Polytechnic Institute (1892–1970), Polytechnic of the South Bank (1970–1987), South Bank Polytechnic (1987–1992) |
|---|---|
| Type | Public |
| Established | 1992 (university status) 30 September 1892 (Borough Polytechnic Institute)[1] |
| Chancellor | Sir Simon Hughes[2] |
| Vice-Chancellor | Paul Kett[3] |
Administrative staff | 1,700 |
| Students | 16,965 (2023/24)[4] |
| Undergraduates | 12,925 (2023/24)[4] |
| Postgraduates | 4,040 (2023/24)[4] |
| Location | Southwark, London ,England, United Kingdom 51°29′53″N0°06′06″W / 51.49814°N 0.10154°W /51.49814; -0.10154 |
| Campus | Urban |
| Affiliations | EUA |
| Website | lsbu |
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London South Bank University (LSBU) is apublic university inElephant and Castle,London. It is based in theLondon Borough of Southwark, near theSouth Bank of theRiver Thames, from which it takes its name. Founded in 1892 as theBorough Polytechnic Institute, it achieved university status in 1992 under theFurther and Higher Education Act 1992.
In September 2003, the university underwent its most recent name change to become London South Bank University (LSBU) and has since opened several new centres including the School of Health and Social Care, the Centre for Efficient and Renewable Energy in Buildings (CEREB), a new Student Centre, an Enterprise Centre, and a new media centre Elephant Studios. The university has 16,840 students and 1,700 staff.[1][5][6]
In November 2016, the university was named the Entrepreneurial University of the Year at theTimes Higher Education Awards.[7][8] In the inaugural 2017Teaching Excellence Framework, London South Bank University was awarded a Silver rating and maintained the rating in the 2023 assessment.[9][10]
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London South Bank University was founded in 1892 as the Borough Polytechnic Institute. It has since undergone several name changes, becoming thePolytechnic of the South Bank in 1970,South Bank Polytechnic in 1987,South Bank University in 1992 and London South Bank University in 2003. The university has also merged with a number of other educational institutions.
| South London Polytechnic Institutes (Borough Road Site) Act 1890 | |
|---|---|
| Act of Parliament | |
 | |
| Long title | An Act to authorize the purchase of a Site in Southwark for the South London Polytechnic Institutes. |
| Citation | 53 & 54 Vict. c. ix |
| Dates | |
| Royal assent | 2 May 1890 |
In 1888, Edric Bayley, a local solicitor and member of theLondon School Board, set up the South London Polytechnics Committee whose members included theLord Mayor of London,Archbishop of Canterbury,Lord Salisbury,Lord Rosebery andSir Lyon Playfair. The committee was successful in persuading the Charity Commissioners to pledge to match whatever could be raised from the public, up to the sum of £200,000 to establish polytechnics in South London. A public meeting atMansion House kick-started the public appeal and by 1891 enough money had been raised to establish polytechnics atBattersea and at Borough Road, Southwark, now LSBU.[citation needed][11]
During 1890, the former buildings ofJoseph Lancaster'sBritish and Foreign School Society were purchased for the Borough Polytechnic Institute. In May that year, the South London Polytechnics Institutes Act was passed, so that by June 1891 the governing structure and general aims of the new Institute had been created. These aims were "the promotion of the industrial skills, general knowledge, health, and well-being of young men and women" and also for "instruction suitable for persons intending to emigrate". W. M. Richardson was chosen to be clerk to the governing body, C. T. Millis was appointed as Headmaster, Miss Helen Smith was appointed Lady Superintendent and Edric Bayley was appointed the first Chair of Governors.[12]
On 30 September 1892, the Borough Polytechnic Institute was officially opened byLord Rosebery, with a remit to educate the local community in a range of practical skills. The Polytechnic was given a seal based on the Bridge House emblem of theCity of London and a motto taken fromEcclesiastes — "Do it with thy Might". A gala event was held to mark the occasion which was widely reported in the press because ofLord Rosebery's speech on the banning of smoking in the new Institute. One of the speeches made included the hope that "the Polytechnic would do its share towards perfecting many a valuable gem found in the slums of London".[13]
The Polytechnic specialised in courses that reflected local trades including leather tanning, typography, metalwork, electrical engineering, laundry, baking, and boot & shoe manufacture. Instruction was also given in art, science, elocution, literature and general knowledge and the Polytechnic held public lectures by the likes ofGeorge Bernard Shaw,J. A. Hobson,Henry M. Stanley, andRalph Vaughan Williams.[13]
On 10 October 1894, the National School of Bakery and Confectionery (later theNational Bakery School) was opened with 78 pupils. In 1897, the Polytechnic was let to sightseers who wished to see the Diamond Jubilee parade forQueen Victoria.[citation needed]
In 1902, the Borough Road building was once again let to sightseers who wished to see the Coronation parade ofKing Edward VII.[citation needed] Through a donation from Edric Bayley, the Edric Hall was built in 1908, along with the Lancaster Street extension buildings which gave the Polytechnic new bakery rooms, gymnasium, workshops and its triangular campus site.
In 1911, the Governors commissionedRoger Fry to create a set of seven murals to decorate the student dining room with the theme of "London on Holiday". These comprised:
In 1931, they were sold to theTate Gallery.[14][15]
During theFirst World War, the Polytechnic manufactured munitions andgas masks for thewar effort and ran courses for the army. After the War, theNational Certificate system was taken up, engineering courses were offered to women in the 1920s and printing classes were dropped and run at Morley College. J W Bispham was elected the new Principal in 1922 when C T Millis retired and a rebuilding scheme was undertaken including a new facade for theBorough Road building. Class numbers increased to 8,682 students by 1927 and on 20 February 1930 theDuke of York officially opened the Polytechnic's new buildings. In 1933, Dr D H Ingall took over as Principal and a sports ground at Turney RoadDulwich was obtained for the Polytechnic. In 1933,farriery was dropped as it was too difficult to bring horses into the building.[16]
During theSecond World War, a third of the Polytechnic's campus was destroyed or damaged from theBlitz.Southwark was bombed seven times and its population halved by the end of the War. At the start of the War the boys and girls from the Polytechnic's Trade Schools were evacuated toExeter. From 1940 to 1941, the Polytechnic was bombed five times but continued to provide hundreds of meals a day to the homeless of Southwark during this period.[citation needed]
From 1945 to 1953, British painterDavid Bomberg taught art at the Polytechnic forming the 'Borough Group' of artists with his pupils in 1946.[17] In 1956, the Polytechnic was designated a Regional College of Technology and Dr J E Garside was installed as the new Principal until 1965, when Vivian Pereira-Mendoza took over. Further extensions to the buildings were made during the 1960s with the opening of the National College Wing in 1961 and the extension buildings and Tower Block in 1969, which were officially opened byPrince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh.
In 1970, the Brixton School of Building (founded in 1904), the City of Westminster College (founded in 1918 – and not the same institution as the currentCity of Westminster College) and the National College of Heating, Ventilating, Refrigeration and Fan Engineering (founded in 1947) merged with the Polytechnic to become thePolytechnic of the South Bank. The new institution adopted a coat of arms designed to include twoThames barges set above a pentagon surrounded by five other pentagons. An official designation service took place the following year, at whichMargaret Thatcher was the guest speaker. In 1972 the purpose-built Wandsworth Road site opened, providing space for the Polytechnic's Faculty of the Built Environment, which at the time was the biggest and most comprehensive faculty in Europe for teaching built environment subjects such as surveying, town planning, architecture, civil engineering and other property related professional disciplines. In 1975, the extensiveLondon Road building was opened, providing space for expanding business courses and the library. In 1976 the Battersea College of Education merged with the polytechnic, bringing sites atManresa House,Roehampton and Manor House,Clapham Common. Battersea College of Education was previously known as Battersea College of Domestic Science (1948 to 1965).[18] Also in 1976, part of Rachel MacMillan College of Education merged with the Polytechnic.[citation needed]
In 1985South Bank Technopark opened on London Road and in 1987 the Polytechnic changed its name again to become South Bank Polytechnic. In the same year, theBritish Youth Opera (BYO) was founded and made a home at the Polytechnic's Southwark campus. In 1987,Pauline Perry, Baroness Perry of Southwark was appointed Director, who oversaw the conversion of the Polytechnic into a flagship university.[citation needed]
In 1990, the Polytechnic was accredited for Research Degrees and in 1991 the Central Catering College at Waterloo and South West London College merged with it. In 1992, the newly created Baroness Perry (August 1991) became the University's first Vice-Chancellor.[citation needed]
In 1992, the Polytechnic was granted university status and accordingly changed its name to South Bank University. That year also saw the new university celebrate its centenary and adopt the marketing slogan, "the University without Ivory Towers". In 1993,Gerald Bernbaum was appointed Vice-Chancellor and the Centenary Library was renamed the Perry Library. Redwood College of Health Studies andGreat Ormond Street School of Nursing merged with the university in 1995, leading to the establishment of two satellite campuses teaching Health atHavering and Whipps Cross (which closed in 2011).[citation needed]
In 2001,Deian Hopkin became Vice-Chancellor and the Wandsworth Road site was sold.
On 1 September 2003, the university underwent its most recent name change to become London South Bank University (LSBU)[1] and in that year officially opened the Keyworth Centre.Martin Earwicker was appointed Vice-Chancellor in 2009, the year in which another major building on their Southwark campus, the Grimshaw-designed K2, was opened to house the School of Health and Social Care and the Centre for Efficient and Renewable Energy in Buildings (CEREB).[5] The building also houses skills laboratories for the University's nursing students. Further campus developments included a new Student Centre in 2012, followed by an Enterprise Centre in 2013. In 2016 LSBU opened its new media centre, Elephant Studios at LSBU.
On 1 January 2014,Dave Phoenix was appointed Vice-Chancellor.[19]
In 2014, university officials removed a poster featuring theFlying Spaghetti Monster and the stand erected by the students from the South Bank Atheist Society during the Fresher's week, claiming it was "religiously offensive".[20] This action drew criticism from theBritish Humanist Association which claimed it amounted to "petty censorship in the name of offence".[20]
The LSBU-sponsoredUniversity Academy of Engineering South Bank opened its doors to students in September 2014.[21] The purpose-built facility is in theWalworth area ofCamberwell and can accommodate 150 students aged 11–19.[citation needed]
Lambeth College is intending to merge with the University.[22]
The main campus populates a triangular section of roads in theBorough of Southwark, immediately north of theElephant and Castle. London'sSouth Bank is a short tube or bus journey away fromWaterloo orLondon Bridge. To the north of the campus isBorough Road, where the main entrance is situated and the original building of the Borough Polytechnic Institute. To the west isLondon Road and to the east isSouthwark Bridge Road. At the northwest corner isSt George's Circus.
Schiller International University had a campus in the Technopark Building on the London South Bank University property.[23][24] In August 2011 Schiller stated that it was closing its London campus and will not start the Autumn 2011 semester there, due to stricter student visa requirements in the United Kingdom.[25]
There is a smaller satellite campus in east London: atHavering (LSBU at Havering), diagonally oppositeHarold Wood station. A central Croydon campus is due to open in September 2021: it will be at Electric House in Wellesley Road.[26]
The university has seven Schools, they are;
The University announced in April 2021 that in 2021 they were not admitting students to study history or human geography.[27]
The British painterDavid Bomberg taught Art at the Borough Polytechnic between 1945 and 1954.[28] One of the university's halls of residence,David Bomberg House, carries his name and a handful of his works are on display at the University. Major paintings by Bomberg were acquired by theTate Gallery after his death.
London South Bank University works inpartnership with institutions in the UK, Europe, Africa, the Americas and Asia. It currently works closely with theBeijing Institute of Technology,Hunan University,Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications,Northwestern Polytechnical University, and the National Academy of Education Administration. The collaborative educational programmes both at undergraduate and postgraduate levels have been running for over ten years with the Chinese partners. LSBU established the first Confucius Institute for Traditional Chinese Medicine in 2007.[29]
| National rankings | |
|---|---|
| Complete (2026)[30] | 110 |
| Guardian (2026)[31] | 77 |
| Times / Sunday Times (2026)[32] | 111 |
| Global rankings | |
| QS (2026)[33] | 901–950 |
| THE (2026)[34] | 601–800 |
In November 2016, the university was named the Entrepreneurial University of the Year at the Times Higher Education Awards.[7][8]
The Guardian's 2018 league table of teaching excellence ranked the university 92 out of 121 British institutions.[35] TheSunday Times' league table, measuring a number of different factors including teaching quality, research quality and employment rates, ranks the university 120th.[36] However,The Guardian rated LSBU joint 13th forlaw students.[37]
In the inaugural 2017Teaching Excellence Framework assessment which ranked the quality of undergraduate teaching across UK universities and applied either a bronze, silver or gold ranking, LSBU was awarded a "Silver" ranking.[9]
70% of UK students at London South Bank University are Londoners. Students primarily come from the South London Boroughs ofSouthwark,Lambeth,Lewisham andCroydon, and the East London Borough ofNewham. Around 12% of students are from overseas, which equate to over 3,000EU and other international students, from more than 130 countries.[38] 56% of the student population are fromethnic minorities and over 80% of the students are classified asmature (21 or over when they start their course).[39]
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