Croydon Polytechnic

.Bombed Factory - Croydon (1941) > .

Britain 1940: The day that bombs rained down on Croydon .

Croydon School of Art was established in 1868 above the Public Halls in George Street. 

Croydon Corporation (the governing body of the County Borough of Croydon) founded the Pitlake Technical Institute in 1888, which would later become Croydon Polytechnic, which had an initial intake of 162 students. 

In 1929, the Board of Education first highlighted the need for a new technical college to replace Croydon Polytechnic. In 1932, the School of Art was taken over by the Council to become Croydon College of Art. 

These two institutions continued to educate separately in and around Croydon until 1941 when the Polytechnic was bombed and gutted by fire during WW2, prompting plans to combine them on a new site in Fairfield, right at the heart of Croydon. 

It was not until 1948 before the plans for a new college could be revived when the Corporation drew up a Development Plan for Further Education. By then student enrolment had risen to over 4,000. The plan was to create a technical college, which would merge the Polytechnic and College of Art. Three years later, Croydon Corporation formally approved plans for a new college and in 1953 construction started at the college's current Fairfield site on the first of four stages.

The new Croydon Technical College (later known as Croydon College of Design and Technology) opened its doors for the first time in 1955 and was finally completed and formally opened by the Queen in 1960. In 1974 the College was renamed Croydon College and has remained as such on the main Fairfield site ever since.

timeline:

• 1868 Croydon School of Art 
• 1888 Pitlake Technical Institute, later became Croydon Polytechnic
• 1932 Croydon School of Art renamed Croydon College of Art
• 1941 Croydon Polytechnic bombed
• 1948 plan to merge Polytechnic and College of Art
• 1953 construction begun at Fairfield site
• 1955 Croydon Technical College opened (later known as Croydon College of Design and Technology)
• 1974 college renamed Croydon College

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Croydon_College .

https://croydon.ac.uk/student-life/history/ .

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polytechnic_%28United_Kingdom%29 .

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