Barrett Street Technical College Barrett Street Trade School

Barrett Street Trade School was founded in 1915 by the London County Council Technical Education board to train pupils for industries that required skilled craft labour. During the nineteenth century both skilled men and women employed in the clothing industry earned their trade through an apprenticeship, but by the end of the century the system was not training sufficient workers and trade schools were established to provide more skilled labour. The school ran a variety of courses including dressmaking, ladies tailoring, embroidery and hairdressing and beauty. Men's tailoring and furrier courses were established later.

The school took pupils from the age of 12 following elementary education, and trained them for two years to work primarily in London's West End couturier houses and hair salons. Women were employed in the ready-to-wear trade centred on London's East End, or in the fashionable dressmaking and allied trades in the West End, based around the South Kensington and Oxford Street areas. Women working in this area were highly skilled, and the early needle-trade schools in London, including Barrett Street trained women for this high quality couture work. Almost all pupils obtained employment on completion of their courses.

All pupils followed a curriculum that was two-thirds trade subject and one-third general education. Following the success of the full time courses Barrett Street started to run a variety of day release and evening courses for women already working in the trade. The school worked very closely with the trades and had consultative committees that were almost exclusively made up of members from the industries. These committees advised in the suitability of courses for the prevailing employment conditions in the clothing industry at the time, and courses were introduced or adapted accordingly. For example in 1926 Barrett Street Trade School started running courses for older students who wanted careers as dress designers.

After the Second World War and the 1944 Education Act, which required pupils to continue full time general education until 15, Barrett Street was given technical college status. The junior courses were discontinued and senior courses expanded. Management courses were introduced. The school was renamed Barrett Street Technical College, and after 1950, began to take on male students. The college amalgamated with Shoreditch College for the Garment Trades in 1967 to form the London College for the Garment Trades, later renamed the London College of Fashion.