Our History
We have a remarkable history with our compilation of three colleges that make up Capital City College Group (CCCG) – City and Islington College, The College of Haringey, Enfield and North East London and Westminster Kingsway College.
City and Islington College, originally known as Islington Federal College, was founded in November 1993 following the merger of City and East London College, North London College, Islington Adult Education Service and Islington Sixth Form College. In 2003, the college reorganised its curriculum across five centres, each with bespoke specialisms.
Today it is one of the largest Further Education colleges in the UK with approximately 18,000 students across all age groups and offers a wide range of further, adult and higher education programmes.
In 2016, the college merged with Westminster Kingsway College to form Capital City College Group; in late 2017, the College of Haringey, Enfield and North East London joined, making the group one of the largest colleges in the UK.
Following the merger of various colleges in 1993, City and Islington College inherited a large, but neglected estate, consisting of seven Victorian London School Board properties, three late 1950s school and college buildings and a listed early 19th-century building in Pitfield Street, Shoreditch. The estate was valued at just £12 million in 1992, at the bottom of a property slump. In addition, there were two leased buildings costing the college £1 million a year in rent. A premises committee was founded to look at purchasing new buildings to enhance and improve the experience for City and Islington College students.
The first step of improving the City and Islington College portfolio of centres was the purchase of the Marlborough Building from London Metropolitan University, refurbished and redeveloped for its official opening in September 1995. The building became the new home of the college’s senior management team and for college-wide support services, such as finance and human resources.
Following the purchase of the Centre for Health, Social and Childcare, a site at Bunhill Row was sold in 1997, with sites at Rochelle Street, the Chequer Centre and Pitfield Street sold in 1998. The Marlborough Building was temporarily closed during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, with provision at the centre relocated to the Centre for Business, Arts and Technology, and the Centre for Lifelong Learning.
Centre for Applied Sciences (Angel)
The second stage of redevelopment for City and Islington College was the purchase of the Dame Alice Owen’s Girls’ School building in Angel, now home to the Centre for Applied Sciences.
Originally, the college’s bid was rejected in favour of a Premier Inn building and residential development. Following intervention from Islington Council, the college was awarded the lease, for 125 years at a cost of £8 million. The building was redeveloped, and officially opened by Steve Jones, Professor of Genetics at UCL, in September 2005.
Sixth Form Centre (Angel)
The City and Islington College Sixth Form College was originally founded in 1983 as Islington Sixth Form Centre, led by Margaret Maden, the head of Islington Green School.
In 2000, plans for five City and Islington College estates were underway, with plans locating the Centre for Lifelong Learning and Sixth Form College at Finsbury Park, the Centre for Applied Sciences at Angel, and the Marlborough Building and Camden Road sites ‘as is’.
Whilst these plans were being approved, a message was received by the then-Minister for Further Education, Baroness Tessa Blackstone, who said she was unhappy about the Sixth Form Centre being at Finsbury Park. In the message, she believed it should be located at Angel, to attract more young people, and it should be specifically titled ‘Sixth Form College’ rather than ‘Sixth Form Centre’. This plan helped the college secure £64 million in funding, allowing the Camden Road site (now Centre for Business, Arts and Technology) to be redeveloped alongside a new Sixth Form College at Angel, next to the former Dame Alice Owen’s Girls’ School building.
Before the formation of Islington Federal College, the Sixth Form College had begun to diversify, offering level 2 and level 3 courses, but over time these were phased out to focus on A Level qualifications. With around 35 A Levels on offer to students, it now has one of the largest provisions in the UK.
Centre for Business, Arts and Technology (Camden Road)
Based on Camden Road, the current home to the Centre for Business, Arts and Technology was one of the original sites inherited by City and Islington College during the merger. The Centre for Business, Arts and Technology was opened in May 2006 by the then Secretary of State for Education, Ruth Kelly.
The centre underwent a full refurbishment and rebuild, with a large part of the college’s £64 million ‘building a better college’ fund being spent on developing the centre. During the build, the college hired a large building entitled Spring House, where students and staff were decanted to.
It has an open-plan entrance and canteen area, allowing for student performances, such as poetry reading, alongside specialist dance studios, music studios, fashion and textiles rooms, computer suites and a theatre for performing arts students.
Centre for Lifelong Learning (Finsbury Park)
The current Centre for Lifelong Learning opened in 2005, offering a large range of adult literacy and numeracy programmes, as well as English for Speakers of Other Languages.
Students at the centre are largely part-time, with around 4000 different people studying at the centre each year. Most of the provision at the Centre for Lifelong Learning can be traced back to the original provision from the Islington Adult Education Service; the café, run by students with learning difficulties, started life at the Chequer Centre and the humanities programmes at Pitfield Street.
The College of Haringey, Enfield and North East London was founded in 2009 through the merger of two colleges – Enfield College and the College of North East London – with roots tracing back to 1829 when the Tottenham Centre was known as Grove House School. This long-standing history has ensured that CONEL has an established reputation for offering training at all levels for 16 to 18-year-olds and adult learners from its two main centres in North East London – Tottenham and Enfield.
The college’s history in Tottenham goes as far back as 1818 when the 18th Century Grove House was bought by the Society of Friends (Quakers) and opened the ‘Grove House School’ in 1829. The school was noted for its advanced curriculum and refusal to use corporal punishment, producing a number of well-known alumni, including 11 future UK MPs.
In 1870, CONEL alum, WE Forster, a member of the local Tottenham Quaker family, took the 1870 Education Act to Parliament, which ensured every child was entitled to an elementary education, at minimum. Other well-known alumni include mental health physicians, Dr Daniel Tuke and Joseph Lister, who helped pioneer antiseptic surgery.
Grove House School closed in 1878 and was left empty until 1892 when the building began being utilised to teach classes in art, science and technical subjects. Middlesex County Council purchased the building in 1897, renaming it Tottenham Polytechnic. By 1909, the Polytechnic was delivering courses in art, physiology and hygiene, science, technology, building construction, plumbing and carpentry, as well as land surveying, bus routine and gas manufacture. The estate was expanded in 1910, with new buildings at the rear, including an assembly hall, 11 classrooms, laboratories, and photographic dark rooms, alongside cookery and art rooms. The Polytechnic also expanded its provision to include dressmaking and millinery.
Further north in Enfield in 1901, Sir Joseph Swan (the co-inventor of the electric light bulb with Thomas Edison) opened the Ediswan Institute on the Ponders End High Street, delivering evening classes and social activities. In 1905, this too was purchased by Middlesex County Council, being renamed the Ponders End Technical Institute, and expanding in 1911 to deliver new courses, alongside Enfield Junior Technical School, a day school for boys aged 13-16.
In 1913, the Tottenham Polytechnic moved to a new building on Tottenham Green, and expanded, also opening a day school for boys, and a second day school for both boys and girls, aged 13-16. Grove House was demolished and rebuilt, opening in 1939, and renaming to Tottenham Technical College.
Continuing to provide education through the war, Ponders End Technical Institute was renamed Enfield Technical College in 1928, alongside the Ponders End Junior Technical School, with the college providing essential services to train technicians during World War II. In 1962, the college was renamed Enfield College of Technology, and, in 1967, was reorganised into faculties for arts and technology. It also offered sports at a sports field and pavilion on World’s End Lane, about 3 miles away from its site. In 1973, Enfield College of Technology became part of Middlesex Polytechnic, alongside the Hornsey College of Art.
Enfield Junior Technical School moved to Queensway in 1941, and then relocated again in 1962, to Collinwood Avenue, the site of the current Enfield Centre. The school was renamed Ambrose Fleming and was eventually reorganised as a comprehensive school for boys and girls in 1967, before closing in 1987. Enfield College of Technology moved onto the site that year.
Tottenham Technical College continued to grow throughout the early 1900s, having expanded to teach science, health, hairdressing, social studies, business studies and technology by 1964. In 1965, ownership of the college was transferred to the London Borough of Haringey, and three new blocks were opened in 1973, alongside a second-phase Tower Block. The college was renamed Tottenham College of Technology, and merged with Haringey College in April 1990, to become the College of North East London. Haringey Adult Education joined the College of North East London in January 1991, giving the college 7 sites across Haringey.
In 1997, the Tottenham Centre celebrated its centenary, and in 2000, a new entrance and ground floor extension was opened, entitled the Centenary Building.
In August 2009, The College of North East London merged with Enfield College to form The College of Haringey, Enfield and North East London, with two large flagship centres; the Tottenham Centre on the High Road, near Seven Sisters tube station, and the Enfield Centre, near Collinwood Avenue, within walking distance of Southbury train station. The college joined Capital City College Group in November 2017, alongside Westminster Kingsway College (WestKing) and City and Islington College (CANDI).
The history of Westminster Kingsway College dates back to the 1890s, but the college in its current form was officially founded in September 2000, following the merger of Westminster College and Kingsway College (previously Princeton College and then Kingsway Princeton College). This brought together centres across two central London boroughs, Camden and Westminster. Today, we are one of the largest Further Education colleges in the UK with approximately 14,000 students across all age groups, offering a wide range of further, adult and higher education programmes.
In 2016, the college merged with City and Islington College to form Capital City College Group; in late 2017, the College of Haringey, Enfield and North East London joined, making the group one of the largest colleges in the UK.
King’s Cross Centre
Located at the junction of Gray’s Inn Road and Sidmouth Street, the King’s Cross Centre began its history as part of the former Princeton College, and then Kingsway Princeton College, in the 1970s.
In 2009, the King’s Cross Centre was rebuilt under the Government’s ‘Building Colleges for the Future’ programme. The centre was officially opened by Kevin Brennan MP, Minister for Further Education, Skills, Apprenticeships and Consumer Affairs.
Soho Centre
Located in the heart of London’s West End is the college’s Soho Centre, which has been used to provide language courses since 1913. It was previously founded as the Pulteney General Institute in September 1882 at the site of the Crown Street School in Soho. The Institute was founded to provide evening classes appropriate to the needs of the local community which included language classes. The “Pulteney” moved to Peter Street in Soho in 1913. During the 1960s and 1970s, the Soho Centre was home to the School of Languages and General Studies.
Today, the Soho Centre provides a large part of the College’s ESOL and English Language provision as well as being the location of the Creative Media Hub and 01zero-one. The Creative Media Hub and 01zero-one provide industry-led skills development and training for London’s audio-visual and digital media industries. In the heart of Soho, its basement location can be hired for conferences, exhibitions, parties, meetings, editing and training sessions and has a fully equipped broadcast Film Studio.
Victoria Centre
Our Victoria Centre has a long history of education in the hospitality and culinary arts industry and in 2010, the School of Hospitality celebrated its 100th anniversary. As part of the centenary celebrations, the college welcomed HRH The Prince of Wales on a visit to the Victoria Centre where he toured the teaching kitchens and met staff and students.
The School of Hospitality was formed one hundred years ago when a committee of concerned academics and hospitality representatives, which included Auguste Escoffier and Isidore Salmon, came together to develop a school for professional cookery. Many of London’s finest hotels were being opened during this period in a new age of hospitality for the 20th century, including the Ritz Hotel London opened in 1906, the Waldorf Astoria in 1908 and the family-run Goring Hotel in 1910.
The ‘Westminster Technical Institute’ was established in 1894 in a two-storey building, provided by Baroness Burdett-Coutts, who had founded the nearby St. Stephen’s Church on Rochester Row and the Burdett-Coutts School. Initially, evening classes were offered in subjects such as building and plumbing trades, carriage-building, and elementary subjects, however, the institute soon offered a wide range of industrial-related courses and held examinations for the City & Guilds and the Society of Arts.
Following the consultations with the hospitality industry in London, the Catering School first opened its doors in 1910 under the guidance of the first Principal, J. Stuart Ker. Records show that this was in fact the first Culinary Arts School to open in the UK. The initial prospectus illustrates the range of courses that were offered, including Civil Engineering, Gas Engineering, Architecture and Construction, Cabinet Making, School of Art and finally, the Cookery Technical Day School, which developed into the Professional Chef Diploma. By 1912, catering had four pages in the prospectus and a ‘School for Waiters’ was added, with a training restaurant, now called The Vincent Rooms, open to students.
At the time, the majority of head chefs employed in London were from France, led by the Chef de Cuisine Auguste Escoffier at the Savoy Hotel. Auguste Escoffier founded the Société Culinaire Française with Chef Emile Fetu in 1903, later merged with the Club Culinaire to become the Association Culinaire Française. The interwar years saw the continuation of evening classes in engineering and art and day courses in catering. Mr Ker, Principal since 1907, was replaced in 1932 by Dr G. N. Long. Major extensions to the building in Vincent Square, particularly to incorporate the needs of the catering courses, followed. Large-scale catering equipment, cold rooms, a larder and pastry areas were added in 1932. A two-year Hotel Managers’ course was established alongside the food service course.
In 1951 the Vincent Rooms restaurant was extended and in 1953, the Escoffier Room opened; a fine dining room named after Auguste Escoffier. During this period further kitchens were added as well as a wine cellar. The number of courses for both chefs and front-of-house students also continued to grow.
In 2010, the School of Hospitality celebrated its 100th anniversary. As part of the centenary celebrations, the College welcomed HRH The Prince of Wales on a visit to the Victoria Centre where he toured the teaching kitchens and met staff and students as well as a group from the Princes Trust that were being trained by the College.
In 2012, Westminster Kingsway College launched its new innovative teaching kitchens at the Victoria Centre with a launch event for stakeholders, sponsors, College Governors, staff and students. The new facilities include Baroness Burdett-Coutts Kitchen for International Culinary students; Culinary Science and Kitchen Innovation Laboratory; and Chocolate Laboratory.
Today, the Victoria Centre houses the School of Culinary Arts and Hospitality, Travel and Tourism, Business and IT courses, Higher Education and Foundation Degrees and https://www.capitalccg.ac.uk/courses/esol/517/ESOL (English for Speakers of Other Languages) as well as the college’s famous restaurant, the Vincent Rooms.
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