Central Saint Martins is a
constituent college
A collegiate university is a university where functions are divided between a central administration and a number of constituent colleges. Historically, the first collegiate university was the University of Paris and its first college was the Col ...
of the
University of the Arts London
The University of the Arts London is a public collegiate university in London, England, United Kingdom. It specialises in arts, design, fashion, and the performing arts. The university is a federation of six arts colleges: Camberwell College of ...
, a public art university in
London
London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...
, England. The college offers full-time courses at foundation,
undergraduate
Undergraduate education is education conducted after secondary education and before postgraduate education, usually in a college or university. It typically includes all postsecondary programs up to the level of a bachelor's degree. For example, ...
and
postgraduate
Postgraduate education, graduate education, or graduate school consists of academic or professional degrees, certificates, diplomas, or other qualifications usually pursued by post-secondary students who have earned an undergraduate (bachelor' ...
levels, and a variety of short and summer courses.
It was formerly known as Central Saint Martins College of Arts and Design, and before that as Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design.
History
Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design was formed in 1989 from the merger of the
Central School of Art and Design
The Central School of Art and Design was a school of fine and applied arts in London, England. It offered foundation and degree level courses. It was established in 1896 by the London County Council as the Central School of Arts and Crafts.
...
, founded in 1896, and
Saint Martin's School of Art
Saint Martin's School of Art was an art school, art college in London, England. It offered foundation and degree level courses. It was established in 1854, initially under the aegis of the church of St Martin-in-the-Fields. Saint Martin's beca ...
, founded in 1854. Since 1986 both schools had been part of the
London Institute
The University of the Arts London is a public collegiate university in London, England, United Kingdom. It specialises in arts, design, fashion, and the performing arts. The university is a federation of six arts colleges: Camberwell College ...
, formed by the
Inner London Education Authority
The Inner London Education Authority (ILEA) was the local education authority for the City of London and the 12 Inner London boroughs from 1965 until its abolition in 1990. From 1965 to 1986 it was an ad hoc committee of the Greater London Co ...
to bring together seven London art, design, fashion and media schools. The London Institute became a legal entity in 1988, could award taught degrees from 1993, was granted university status in 2003 and was renamed University of the Arts London in 2004. It also includes
Camberwell College of Arts
Camberwell College of Arts is a constituent college of the University of the Arts London, a public art and design university in London, England. The college offers further and higher education programmes, including postgraduate and PhD awards. ...
,
Chelsea College of Arts
Chelsea College of Arts is a Colleges of the University of the Arts London, constituent college of the University of the Arts London, a public art and design university in London, England.
It offers further education, further and higher educ ...
, the
London College of Communication
The London College of Communication is a constituent college of the University of the Arts London. Its origins are in education for the printing and retail industries; it now specialises in media-related subjects including advertising, animation ...
, the
London College of Fashion
The London College of Fashion is a constituent college of the University of the Arts London, a public art university in London, England. The college offers undergraduate and postgraduate study, short courses, study-abroad courses and business t ...
and
Wimbledon College of Arts.
The
Drama Centre London
Drama Centre London (often abbreviated as Drama Centre) was a British drama school in Kings Cross, London, King's Cross, London, where it moved in 2011 after a major reshaping of the University of the Arts London. It was part of Central Saint ...
, founded in 1963, joined Central Saint Martins in 1999 as an integral school, maintaining its name and teaching approaches. The
Byam Shaw School of Art
The Byam Shaw School of Art, often known simply as Byam Shaw, was an independent art school in London, England, which specialised in fine art and offered foundation and degree level courses. It was founded in 1910 by Byam Shaw, John Liston Bya ...
, founded in 1910, was merged into Central Saint Martins in 2003.
Central School of Art and Design

The Central School of Art and Design was established as the Central School of Arts and Crafts in 1896 by
London County Council
The London County Council (LCC) was the principal local government body for the County of London throughout its existence from 1889 to 1965, and the first London-wide general municipal authority to be directly elected. It covered the area today ...
. It grew directly from the
Arts and Crafts movement
The Arts and Crafts movement was an international trend in the decorative and fine arts that developed earliest and most fully in the British Isles and subsequently spread across the British Empire and to the rest of Europe and America.
Initiat ...
of
William Morris
William Morris (24 March 1834 – 3 October 1896) was an English textile designer, poet, artist, writer, and socialist activist associated with the British Arts and Crafts movement. He was a major contributor to the revival of traditiona ...
and
John Ruskin
John Ruskin (8 February 1819 20 January 1900) was an English polymath a writer, lecturer, art historian, art critic, draughtsman and philanthropist of the Victorian era. He wrote on subjects as varied as art, architecture, Critique of politic ...
. The first principal, from 1896 until 1911, was
William Richard Lethaby
William is a masculine given name of Germanic origin. It became popular in England after the Norman conquest in 1066,All Things William"Meaning & Origin of the Name"/ref> and remained so throughout the Middle Ages and into the modern era. It is ...
; a
blue plaque
A blue plaque is a permanent sign installed in a public place in the United Kingdom, and certain other countries and territories, to commemorate a link between that location and a famous person, event, or former building on the site, serving a ...
in his memory was erected in 1957. The school was at first housed in Morley Hall, rented from the
Regent Street Polytechnic
The University of Westminster is a public university, public university based in London, United Kingdom. Founded in 1838 as the Royal Polytechnic Institution, it was the first Polytechnic (United Kingdom), polytechnic to open in London. The Po ...
. It moved to purpose-built premises in
Southampton Row
The A4200 is a major thoroughfare in central London. It runs between the A4 at Aldwych, to the A400 Hampstead Road/Camden High Street, at Mornington Crescent tube station, via Holborn, Bloomsbury, Euston and Somers Town.
Kingsway
...
, in the
London Borough of Camden
The London Borough of Camden () is a London boroughs, borough in Inner London, England. Camden Town Hall, on Euston Road, lies north of Charing Cross. The borough was established on 1 April 1965 from the former Metropolitan boroughs of the Cou ...
, in 1908. In the same year the
Royal Female School of Art
The Royal Female School of Art was a professional British institution for the training of women in art and design. It was founded in London in 1842, as part of the Government School of Design, predecessor of the Royal College of Art. It was mer ...
, established in 1842, was merged into the school. Central became part of the London Institute in 1986, and merged with Saint Martin's in 1989.
Saint Martin's School of Art
Saint Martin's School of Art was established in 1854 by
Henry Mackenzie
Henry Mackenzie FRSE (August 1745 – 14 January 1831, born and died in Edinburgh) was a Scottish lawyer, novelist and writer sometimes seen as the Addison of the North. While remembered mostly as an author, his main income came from legal ro ...
,
vicar
A vicar (; Latin: '' vicarius'') is a representative, deputy or substitute; anyone acting "in the person of" or agent for a superior (compare "vicarious" in the sense of "at second hand"). Linguistically, ''vicar'' is cognate with the English p ...
of the church of
St Martin-in-the-Fields
St Martin-in-the-Fields is a Church of England parish church at the north-east corner of Trafalgar Square in the City of Westminster, London. Dedicated to Saint Martin of Tours, there has been a church on the site since at least the medieval pe ...
. It became independent from the church in 1859. Frank Martin became head of the
sculpture
Sculpture is the branch of the visual arts that operates in three dimensions. Sculpture is the three-dimensional art work which is physically presented in the dimensions of height, width and depth. It is one of the plastic arts. Durable sc ...
department in 1952; he brought in young sculptors and recent graduates of the department as teachers. Among these,
Anthony Caro
Sir Anthony Alfred Caro (8 March 192423 October 2013) was an English abstract sculptor whose work is characterised by assemblages of metal using ' found' and industrial objects. He began as a member of the modernist school, having worked with ...
was particularly influential. The group around him came to be known as the New Generation of British sculptors and the sculpture department of Saint Martin's became, in the words of
Tim Scott
Timothy Eugene Scott (born September 19, 1965) is an American businessman and politician serving since 2013 as the Seniority in the United States Senate, junior United States Senate, United States senator from South Carolina. A member of the Re ...
: "the most famous in the art world". Saint Martin's became part of the London Institute in 1986, and merged with Central in 1989.
Drama Centre London
The
Drama Centre London
Drama Centre London (often abbreviated as Drama Centre) was a British drama school in Kings Cross, London, King's Cross, London, where it moved in 2011 after a major reshaping of the University of the Arts London. It was part of Central Saint ...
was founded in 1963 by a breakaway group of teachers and students from the
Central School of Speech and Drama
The Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, commonly shortened to Central, is a drama school founded by Elsie Fogerty in 1906, as the Central School of Speech Training and Dramatic Art, to offer a new form of training in speech and drama for ...
, led by John Blatchley,
Yat Malmgren and Christopher Fettes. The school was a member of
Drama UK and its undergraduate acting course was accredited by Drama UK. The Drama Centre London merged with Central Saint Martins in 1999. The University of the Arts London decided in 2020 to close it.
Byam Shaw School of Art
Byam Shaw School of Art was founded by the artists
John Byam Shaw and
Rex Vicat Cole in 1910 as a school of
drawing
Drawing is a Visual arts, visual art that uses an instrument to mark paper or another two-dimensional surface, or a digital representation of such. Traditionally, the instruments used to make a drawing include pencils, crayons, and ink pens, some ...
and
painting
Painting is a Visual arts, visual art, which is characterized by the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called "matrix" or "Support (art), support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with ...
. It was originally located in Campden Street,
Kensington
Kensington is an area of London in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, around west of Central London.
The district's commercial heart is Kensington High Street, running on an east–west axis. The north-east is taken up by Kensingt ...
, and moved to larger premises in
Archway in 1990. It was subsumed by Central Saint Martins in 2003.
Awards and assessment
In 1998 the London Institute received a
Queen's Anniversary Prize
The Queen Elizabeth Prizes for Education (formerly Queen's Anniversary Prizes) are a biennially awarded series of prizes awarded to universities and colleges in the further and higher education sectors within the United Kingdom. Uniquely it forms ...
for the "massive contribution" of Central Saint Martins College of Art & Design to the growth of the fashion industry in Britain. The University of the Arts London received a Queen's Anniversary Prize in 2013, for the contribution of CSM industrial and product design graduates to commerce, industry and the design profession.
CSM does not receive independent assessment in the ''
Complete University Guide
Three national rankings of universities in the United Kingdom are published annually by the ''Complete University Guide'' and ''The Guardian'', as well as a collaborative list by ''The Times'' and ''The Sunday Times''. Rankings have also been pro ...
'' league tables, but is ranked as part of the University of the Arts London. In 2014 the university received an overall ranking of 67 out of 124 institutions, with a rank of 102 for graduate prospects and 123 for student satisfaction with teaching. In 2018 it was placed 83rd out of 129 universities, with a rank of 125 for student satisfaction.
Schools and location

Teaching at Central Saint Martins is organised into nine programmes, which include acting, art, design, fashion, graphics, jewellery and textiles, as well as foundation courses.
Central Saint Martins moved to a converted warehouse complex on
Granary Square at
King's Cross in 2011. Most of the college is housed there, but it also uses the former Byam Shaw building in Elthorne Road,
Archway, and premises in Richbell Place,
Holborn
Holborn ( or ), an area in central London, covers the south-eastern part of the London Borough of Camden and a part (St Andrew Holborn (parish), St Andrew Holborn Below the Bars) of the Wards of the City of London, Ward of Farringdon Without i ...
.
Staff and alumni
Among the alumni of the school are the
Turner Prize
The Turner Prize, named after the English painter J. M. W. Turner, is an annual prize presented to a British visual artist. Between 1991 and 2016, only artists under the age of 50 were eligible (this restriction was removed for the 2017 award). ...
winner
Laure Prouvost
Laure Prouvost (born 1978) is a French artist living and working in Brussels, Belgium. She won the 2013 Turner Prize. In 2019, she represented France at the Venice Biennale with the multi-media installation ''Deep See Blue Surrounding You ''.
...
, the musician
Jarvis Cocker
Jarvis Branson Cocker (born 19 September 1963) is an English musician. As the founder, frontman, lyricist and only consistent member of the band Pulp (band), Pulp, he became a reluctant figurehead of the Britpop genre of the mid-1990s. Cocker h ...
, and many
fashion design
Fashion design is the art of applying design, aesthetics, clothing construction, and natural beauty to clothing and its accessories. It is influenced by diverse cultures and different trends and has varied over time and place. "A fashion design ...
ers, including
John Galliano
John Charles Galliano (born 28 November 1960) is a British fashion designer. He was the creative director of his eponymous label John Galliano and French fashion houses Givenchy and Dior. From 2014 to 2024, Galliano was the creative director ...
,
Stella McCartney
Stella Nina McCartney (born 13 September 1971) is an English fashion designer. She is a daughter of English singer-songwriter Paul McCartney and American photographer and animals rights activist Linda McCartney. Like her parents, McCartney is ...
,
Alexander McQueen
Lee Alexander McQueen (17 March 1969 – 11 February 2010) was a British fashion designer and couturier. He founded his own Alexander McQueen (brand), Alexander McQueen label in 1992 and was chief designer at Givenchy from 1996 to 2001. His ac ...
,
Zac Posen
Zachary E. Posen (; born October 24, 1980) is an American fashion designer.
Early life
Zachary E. Posen was born and raised in a American Jews, Jewish family in New York City, residing in the SoHo neighborhood of lower Manhattan. He is the son ...
and
Riccardo Tisci
Riccardo Tisci (; born 1974) is an Italian fashion designer.
He studied in Italy at the Design Istituto d’Arte Applicata in Cantù until the age of 17, and then graduated from London's Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design in 1999 ...
.
In 2022 Rathna Ramanathan became head of the college, succeeding
Jeremy Till who had been in the post since 2012.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Central Saint Martins
University of the Arts London
Art schools in London
Communication design
Design schools in the United Kingdom
Drama schools in London
Fashion schools in the United Kingdom
Fashion journalism
Educational institutions established in 1854
Graphic design schools
1854 establishments in England
Arts organizations established in 1854
Buildings and structures in the London Borough of Camden
Education in the London Borough of Camden