City Polytechnic

The City Polytechnic was formed in 1891 by a Charity Commissioners' scheme linking Birkbeck Institute, The City of London College and a proposed Northampton Institute in Finsbury (now City University), to facilitate funding for these institutions by the City Parochial Foundation. Whilst each institute was to be managed by its own governing body, the institutes were to organise their educational and recreational work cooperatively to economise on resources and avoid duplication. There was to be a Council of twelve for the City Polytechnic comprising three members from the Trustees of the London Parochial Charities and three members from each of the constituent institutes' governing bodies, all serving a six year term of office. However, no real links were ever established between the three institutions and the name "City Polytechnic" was rarely used by the individual institutions on their prospectuses and annual reports. The Technical Education Board of the London County Council noted that Birkbeck Institute and The City of London College acted as though no formal federated structure existed and the Board itself treated the Northampton Institute as an independent polytechnic in the later 1890s. Efforts to dissolve the City Polytechnic were eventually successful in 1906.