LSE 1895

1895 - 1910 - Fabianism and a time for social reform

1895
The London School of Economics and Political Science

The London School of Economics and Political Science was founded in 1895 after a bequest to the Fabian Society of some £20,000 by Henry Hunt Hutchinson in 1894. The decision to found the School was made at a breakfast party between four Fabians: Beatrice and Sidney Webb, George Wallas, and George Bernard Shaw on 4 August 1894. The real driving force for the School was the Webbs, and in particular Sidney, for whom such a School had been an idea of long standing.

The Hutchinson bequest coincided not just with the Webbs' ideas, but also with a wider movement in society. Politically and economically, people feared that Britain's international position in business and industry was at risk because of inadequate teaching and research. In August 1894 the British Association for the Advancement of Science spoke out for the need to advance the systematic study of economics.

The timing was favourable, the idea found support, and the London School of Economics and Political Science held its first classes in October 1895 at rooms at No 9 John Street, Adelphi. The School's academic purpose was clear: original lectures, the scientific and objective discovery of facts, research and the training of researchers. In 1905/6 there were 181 postgraduates in the whole of England and Wales: 27 at Oxford, 36 at Cambridge, 49 at other universities - and 69 at LSE. Within its first decade the School had become established as a centre of research.

Extract from Sidney Webb
letter to Robertson,
the Vice Chancellor of the
University of
London 3 Jan 1903 about his intentions
in founding LSE

From the beginning, LSE's expansion was rapid. The British Library of Political and Economic Science was created alongside the School, and in 1896 the institution moved from 9 John Street, Adelphi to 10 Adelphi Terrace. In 1900 LSE was recognised as a Faculty of Economics in the newly constituted University of London, and in 1901 the Faculty degrees were announced as the B.Sc. (Econ.) and D.Sc. (Econ.). These were the first university degrees principally dedicated to the social sciences, and LSE became the institution where the social sciences were established in Britain. In 1902 the School moved to its first purpose-built site at Passmore Edwards Hall in Clare Market near Aldwych and the Strand. The School's growth continued here, beginning in 1922 with the construction of Old Building in adjacent Houghton Street.

LSE was impartial, groundbreaking, and the scope of its study innovative. It embraced political science, history, and economics in its study of humanity's social relationships. It was the first such institution in England, and, as the Webbs hoped, it attracted gifted students and academics. From the outset LSE was a centre of research - unbiased, proud of its unique perspective, and pragmatic in its outlook on life and in its reactions to historical circumstances. LSE was never intended to be purely academic, but to use the higher study of economics and political science to educate and train people for careers in administration and business.

The School remains true to its tradition as a pioneer of the social sciences. In the compass and the breadth of social science disciplines it offers, few institutions can rival it. The School studies human society, seeking to understand that society and to improve it. The School's research and advisory bodies extend and apply that knowledge across a variety of contexts. The internationalism of the School's students spreads that knowledge across the world and simultaneously ensures that the School's perspective remains open and global. The School is young, but the composition and maturity of its thought equals that of an ancient university. As Noel Annan commented of Cambridge, Oxford, and the London School of Economics in Our Age: Portrait of a Generation (1990), 'These were the three places where ideas fermented.'