Kensington and Chelsea College

The Sloane School had about 500 boys and was a grammar school on Hortensia Road in Chelsea. It was named after Sir Hans Sloane (1660–1753) after whom Sloane Square was named in 1771. The school library was opened on 25 November 1931 by Sir Hugh Walpole. It was administered by London County Council. From 1929 until 1961, the headmaster was Guy Boas (9 December 1896 – 26 March 1966) who encouraged much-acclaimed productions of Shakespeare. The school magazine was The Cheynean.

Sloane School merged in 1970, with the nearby Carlyle School to become Pimlico Comprehensive School, and Pimlico Academy since 2008. The buildings became Chelsea Secondary School, then part of the college in 1990.

This was the analogous female school of the Sloane School, a girls' grammar school, whose former buildings became the Sloane School, having been built in 1908. Its buildings were extended in 1937, being officially opened on 4 February 1938.[4] It had a separate governing body from the Sloane School from 1961. It had around 350 girls.

The College was established in 1990, by the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, from a merger of parts of two former institutions.[5] It initially operated from the former Sloane and Carlyle School buildings in Chelsea (see above) and from centres in North Kensington, South Kensington and Notting Hill, together with an evening class programme in Holland Park School. In 1993, the College became an independent Further Education corporation, following implementation of the Further and Higher Education Act 1992.[6]

The College's first three principals each made a distinctive contribution to its development. Michael Baber, the first principal, laid the foundations for its long term development. He successfully steered the transition from Local Authority College to freestanding Further Education Corporation, including negotiating freehold ownership of previously shared use sites while developing a strategic partnership with the Local Authority (which included providing its adult education programme and partnership in regeneration projects in North Kensington). Under his leadership the College tripled in size, received a positive inspection report and became the first College in inner London to achieve Investors in People recognition.[7] The College's second Principal, Joanna Gaukroger, was the driving force behind the plan to build a flagship centre at the Chelsea site.[8] part funded by sale of some of the existing College estate. She also used her previous experience as an inspector, to help the College achieve a successful inspection at a time when inspection criteria had become more rigorous,[9] as well as expanding the College's vocational programme. Mike Jutsum, the College's third Principal, added a significant new dimension to its work by securing contracts to provide education in prisons and a young offenders institution in West London. This greatly expanded its educational role while also significantly increasing its income.[10] Although the contract wasn't permanent it provided a valuable financial breathing space at a challenging economic time for Colleges nationally. It was during this period that the new Chelsea Centre, set in motion by his predecessor, was completed. The progress achieved in the College's formative years was clearly due to more than a few individuals, however influential they may have been, i.e. to many managers, lecturers and support staff across the College and over many years. The contribution of lecturers in particular is clear from the inspection reports cited above.

• Cyril Aldred (1914–1991), art historian
• Dr Anthony Blowers CBE, Commissioner of the Mental Health Act Commission, 1987–95
• Geoffrey Bowler, Chief General Manager of the Sun Alliance & London Insurance Group, 1977–87
• Frank Branston (1939–2009), journalist
• Sir Frederick Burden (1905–1987), Conservative MP for Gillingham, 1950–83
• David Caminer, systems analyst; helped design LEO, the world's first business computer[11]
• Spartacus Chetwynd (b. 1973), Turner Prize nominee artist
• John Creasey, writer
• Andrew Crowcroft, psychiatrist
• Dr William Davies CBE, Director of the Institute of Grassland and Environmental Research, 1949–64; President of the British Grassland Society, 1948–49 and 1960–61
• Tony Dyson
• Gordon East, Professor of Geography at Birkbeck, University of London, 1947–70; President of the Institute of British Geographers, 1959–60
• John Fraser, Labour MP for Norwood, 1966–97
• Prof Reg Garton, Professor of Spectroscopy at Imperial College London, 1964–79;[12] discovered the quadratic Zeeman structure in atomic spectra; worked on autoionization of atoms
• Stephen Greif, actor
• Steve Hackett, musician
• Prof Sir Peter Hirsch, Isaac Wolfson Professor of Metallurgy at the University of Oxford, 1966–92
• Prof E R Huehns, Professor of Haematology at University College London, 1975–90 discovered embryonic haemoglobin
• George Innes, actor
• Donald James, born Donald Wheal, author
• Alan Johnson, Labour MP for Kingston upon Hull West and Hessle since 1997
• Rhys Lloyd, Baron Lloyd of Kilgerran, Liberal
• Malcolm Macdonald, footballer
• John Martin-Dye, swimmer at 1960 and 1960 Olympics
• Col Donald McMillan CB OBE, Chairman of Cable & Wireless, 1967–72
• Sir Bernard Miller, Chairman of the John Lewis Partnership, 1955–72
• Cyril Morgan OBE, Secretary of the Institution of Structural Engineers, 1961–82
• Michael Mullin, lead singer with Modern Romance
• James Page, CBE, Commissioner of the City of London Police, 1971–77
• Jeremy Spenser, actor
• Prof James Swarbrick, Professor of Pharmaceutics at the University of North Carolina, 1981–93
• Harry Turner, Managing Director of Television South West, 1975–92
• David Wechsler, Chief Executive of the London Borough of Croydon, 1993–2007
• Prof Carel Weight CBE, painter and Professor of Painting at the Royal College of Art, 1957–73

• Linda Bassett, actress
• Mary Harron, Canadian film director; dated Tony Blair, former music critic; screenwriter; directed American Psycho, also co-writing the screenplay, and attended with her sister Martha, both daughters of Don Harron
• Jacqueline Wheldon (1924–1993), author