In 1792 the Counter Hill Academy opened its doors in New Cross, in a house built by Deptford distiller, William Goodhew. The Royal Naval School then bought the site, building what is now our Richard Hoggart Building in 1843.

The Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths acquired the school and reopened it in 1891 as The Goldsmiths’ Company’s Technical and Recreative Institute. With the dawn of the twentieth century, the Company handed over the Institute to the University of London. It was re-christened Goldsmiths College and the modern era of Goldsmiths had begun.