Teachers – Froebel Decade

Originally founded as the Society of Teachers in 1846 and incorporated by royal charter as The College of Preceptors in 1849, the name changed to The College of Teachers in 1998. The College published The Educational Times from 1847 to 1923 and now publish the quarterly academic journal Education Today.

The College moved into a new purpose built building erected on a plot on the south side of Bloomsbury Square adjoining Southampton Street in 1887 and remained there for the whole of the twentieth century.

As its activities and influence increased, the College needed larger quarters. The architect Frederick Pinches designed a new building in red brick with dressings of Portland stone, and carved stone panels above the ground and first floor windows decorated with medallions of famous educators from John Locke and John Milton to Pestalozzi and Froebel. — Former home of the College of Preceptors designed by the architect Frederick Pinches, a new building in red brick with dressings of Portland stone, and carved stone panels above the ground and first floor windows decorated with medallions of famous educators from John Locke and John Milton to Pestalozzi and Froebel. Photograph by Robert Freidus.

The first professional body for teachers. Women were admitted to the College from 1849. In 1873 the first Professorship of Education in the country was established here, with the appointment of Joseph Payne (Fifty Years of Progress in Education: A Review of the Work of the College of Preceptors from its Foundation in 1846 to its Jubilee in 1896)