Milestones in our history

The University of Brighton is steeped in history and, from its humble beginnings in 1859, teaching artists in the kitchens of the Royal Pavilion, it has become one of the UK’s leading modern universities.

Pre-war civic training colleges and municipal schools gradually came together under the umbrella of the polytechnic in 1970 before we were granted university status in 1992. More than 7,000 students now graduate each year in a range of subjects as diverse as automotive engine design, law with accountancy, midwifery, photography, architecture, education and pharmacy.

To explore and celebrate how we got here, the following is a pictorial overview of the milestones and major landmarks in the history of the University of Brighton.

1859

The town’s new School of Art opens with 110 pupils on Monday 17 January 1859 in "an excellent room provided by the liberality of the town council". The excellent room is, in fact, one of the kitchens of Brighton’s regency gem, the Royal Pavilion, which Queen Victoria sold to the town in 1850.

Illustration of the Arts and Science Building, with floor plans

Brighton School of Art and Science designed by John G Gibbins

1876

The art school moves to a specially constructed building in Grand Parade. Mr William Gladstone, Prime Minister, witnesses the laying of the foundation stone. Under the new title, School of Art and Science, the official opening on 2 February 1877 is a town event of some magnificence, with a royal couple, the Marchioness and Marquis of Lorne, as the principal guests.

1897

A decision to establish a new Municipal School of Science and Technology is taken around 1893 and a central site secured at Richmond Terrace. The ceremonial foundation stone is laid by the Mayor of Brighton on 2 October 1895 and teaching in the new premises commences in September 1897.

There are 600 students, mostly part-time and from building trades, but with 70 three-year science and art department pupils transferred from the Higher Grade School, York Place.

Brochure for new Municipal School of Science and Technology, 1897

1909

In 1909, Richmond Terrace becomes the home of the newly established Brighton Municipal Training College, formed to provide a two-year full-time certificate course for trainee teachers.

The new training college has a principal, four colleagues, and 57 students, about one-third being men. Students receive loans provided by local authorities and will repay these through working as newly certified teachers in authorities' schools. It will expand into 9–10 Hanover Crescent in 1918 and by 1950 will have grown to accommodate 230 students.

1949

The Chelsea School celebrates its fiftieth year by moving to a new home in Eastbourne. Originally founded in London in 1898 by Dorette Wilke as an institution to train women and girls in physical education, it was evacuated to Borth in Wales in 1939 before coming to the south coast. The burgeoning sports school, as part of the East Sussex College of Higher Education, will merge with Brighton Polytechnic in 1979.

Front of the Grand Parade Building in central Brighton

58-67 Grand Parade, Brighton c.1970. Courtesy of School of Art Archive, University of Brighton Design Archives.

1958

Ernest Alfred Sallis Benney’s longstanding negotiations for a new home for the arts at Grand Parade gain approval and plans for a striking modern design. Percy Billington’s original ideas are augmented by Sir Hugh Casson in a three-phase project completed in 1969.

Principal between 1934 and 1958 and ambitious for internationalisation and a close relationship with creative industries, Sallis Benney's name would be given to the purpose-built university theatre in the new Grand Parade building.

1962/3

In 1962, Preston Technical Institute assumes the title Brighton Technical College, being responsible for all the non-advanced day and evening courses, while the existing Brighton Technical College becomes the Brighton College of Technology, intended for more advanced studies.

A ten-storey purpose-built home for the Brighton College of Technology is constructed in 1962/63. This will be opened officially in February 1966 by Nobel prize-winning nuclear physicist Sir John Cockcroft, whose name is given to the building.

Aerial view of Moulsecoomb buildings under construction, 1960s

Photo © Ken Powell - mybrightonandhove.org.uk

1965

The 32-acre Falmer campus is opened in 1965 as a home for the Brighton College of Education. The teacher training concern has long outgrown both its original Brighton Municipal Training College berth in Richmond Terrace and a subsequent move to Eastern Terrace. Renamed in 1964, it has begun taking male students, having only taken female students between 1919 and 1961.

1970

With their new buildings complete, the College of Art at Grand Parade merges with Brighton College of Technology in Moulsecoomb to form Brighton Polytechnic. Margaret Thatcher, Education Secretary in the newly elected Conservative government, signs the certificate to confirm our new polytechnic status.

1976

The Brighton College of Education joins with Brighton Polytechnic, giving the institution a third campus at Falmer.

Meanwhile, the seven-storey Watts building, named after Brighton Technical College's principal at the time of the early 1960s developments, G. E. Watts, is constructed alongside the 1963 Cockcroft Building in Moulsecoomb.

1977

The polytechnic invests in Mithras House and the land around it on Lewes Road. The building is a 1960s addition to the Allen West & Co. Ltd electrical works complex dating from 1939. With the earlier buildings demolished and a name reflecting the belief a Roman Mithraeum temple once stood near the site, it is from the beginning a department of architecture and construction studies and provides a home for central administration for over forty years.

1979

The East Sussex College of Higher Education, including the Chelsea School, merges with Brighton Polytechnic, creating an Eastbourne campus and forging what will become an internationally reputed department of sports science and culture. Sport and health subjects will be consolidated at the Brighton Falmer Campus in 2024.

1992

Along with many other polytechnics, Brighton is granted university status and becomes the University of Brighton.

1994

The Sussex and Kent Institute of Nursing and Midwifery becomes part of the university, increasing the provision of courses taught in Eastbourne at the Leaf Hospital.

1995

The university launches its first website in October 1995 supported by the institution's researchers in the computer science Usability Group. A site of short textual information and hyperlinks, it highlights the university’s "distinctive history, cultural exuberance and cosmopolitan way of life." This vanguard embrace of communications technologies will continue, with social media appearing in March 2009, initially for public arts engagement.

Screenshot of an early University of Brighton website

2003

The Brighton and Sussex Medical School (BSMS) opens as a partnership between the University of Brighton, the University of Sussex and the Universities Hospitals Trust. A donation of £1 million is received into BSMS from pharmaceutical company Pfizer.

2003/4

The University Centre Hastings opens in September 2003 and will be managed by the University of Brighton for 14 years. In 2009, as original partners play lesser roles, it is designated a campus of the university, with specialisms that include degrees in journalism and media production.

In September 2017, degree provision in the town is transferred to East Sussex College Hastings while the university’s media specialisms are consolidated at Brighton's City campus.

Two people walking past the outside of the University Centre Hastings, 2003

Selected works displayed at the 150th celebrations of the founding of the original School of Art, featuring: past students Sally Doust, Keith Tyson, Peter Richardson, Barbara Hulanicki, Emily Gravett Alison Lapper and Chris Ridell; and past staff Raymond Briggs, Anthony Gormley, George Hardie and Louis Ginnett.

2009

2009 is a landmark year. The 150th anniversary of the founding of the School of Art is celebrated through an exhibition and publication that feature many household names in a rollcall of former students and staff.

It is, furthermore, 100 years since the establishment of the first teacher training college in Brighton, 15 years of the School of Nursing and Midwifery, and the tenth anniversary of the launch of the Brighton Business School.

2022

After years of negotiation and planning, our Moulsecoomb 'Big Build' is completed, transforming the campus as part of a master plan that includes the neighbouring Preston Barracks site, and promising significant and lasting benefits for staff, students and the local community. The development includes student accommodation, a new building for the School of Business and Law, a multi-storey car park and an accessible pedestrian bridge to connect the campus across the Lewes Road, as well as fitness facilities and the Students' Union cafe and bar.

2024

As part of a major estates strategy, we complete a significant redevelopment programme at Falmer, consolidating all our sport and health courses on a single Brighton campus and closing the Eastbourne campus. The redevelopment includes the conversion of a former private health club into a mixed-use academic and leisure facility and the repurposing of existing spaces to provide a better experience for students and staff.

At the same time, Mithras House at Moulsecoomb brings together the humanities and social sciences subjects that were spread across campuses.

Today

Boasting three campuses in Brighton, we enjoy a reputation as a leading modern university, with around 7,000 academic awards made each year and a prized portfolio of impact-driven research and knowledge exchange.

The university has developed over the years as an institution that delivers socially purposeful higher education and research. It serves and strengthens society and underpins the economy, contributes critically to the public good and equips its graduates with the skills to succeed. We are proud to be of service to all who find a home here and to diverse communities locally, nationally and internationally.

University of Brighton signage in front of Elm House