London Metropolitan University has a rich history with strong educational roots dating back to 1848.
The University as it is today was created in 2002 with the merging of London Guildhall University and the University of North London, the first merger between two universities in the UK. Its roots, however, lie firmly in the nineteenth century with the establishment of the Metropolitan Evening Classes for Young Men in 1848.
In 1848 the then Bishop of London called upon the clergy to set up evening classes to improve the "moral, intellectual and spiritual condition of young men in the metropolis". The Metropolitan Evening Classes for Young Men was thus born and later became the City of London College and then the City of London Polytechnic. In 1992, the Polytechnic was awarded university status (with degree-awarding powers) by Act of Parliament and adopted the name London Guildhall University.
Individual histories of each of our predecessor institutions can be found below, alongside our historical timeline:
You can also explore our research pages, which use records found within our University Archive (and related collections) to highlight specific themes and subjects. These include:
Over the past 100 years, our north London campus has developed into a modern, progressive centre with a strong reputation for widening access into education.
This campus began life in 1896 as the Northern Polytechnic Institute. By 1900, student numbers had doubled and later the Institute's evening degrees were recognised by the University of London. In 1971, the Northern Polytechnic (as it had become known from 1925 onwards) merged with North Western Polytechnic to form the Polytechnic of North London, and in 1992 the Polytechnic was granted its own University status and the name of the University of North London.
In August 2014, London Metropolitan University began the process of constructing, for the first time, a central historic archive of material that relates to all its predecessor institutions and contributes towards the narrative arc of the institution's extensive history. Now fully formed and accessible, this archive holds important information, not only about the evolution of the University, but also about aspects of educational social history that prevailed in these areas of the capital during the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
