The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) was the brain child of Sidney Webb, supported by his wife, the social investigator Beatrice Webb, the political scientist Graham Wallas, and the writer George Bernard Shaw. All four were prominent members of the Fabian Society.
Instead of going to university he entered the Civil Service, attended university extension courses and studied for the bar. This shaped his vision for education and for LSE.
A pioneer of social research and policymaking, Beatrice worked on Charles Booth's enquiry, published a Minority Report on the Poor Law, and lectured at LSE on trade unionism and employment.
A school teacher turned political psychologist, he declined to become LSE's first Director but did deliver the School’s first political science lectures.
Although she was not a founder, her financial support was crucial for the survival of the early School. One of her donations funded what is now known as the Shaw Library. It's named after her - and not her famous husband.
His vision is to found, slowly and quietly, a ‘London School of Economics and Political Science’ – a centre not only of lectures on special subjects, but an association of students who would be directed and supported in doing original work
In 1894, LSE's founders decided to use a £20,000 bequest to open a specialist higher education institution. The first students arrived at LSE in October 1895.
LSE student group c1910. IMAGELIBRARY/899. LSE
From the start, LSE was open to women and men and welcomed students from overseas. The School was committed to providing its students with "scientific training in methods of investigation and research".
The special aim of the School will be, from the first, the study and investigation of the concrete facts of industrial life and the actual working of economic and political relations as they exist or have existed, in the United Kingdom and in foreign countries.
Known as the School, LSE first opened its doors in 1895 in three rooms in 9 John Adam Street, close to the Strand in central London. An economic historian, 29-year-old William Hewins, was appointed the first Director.
During our first year, 300 students enrolled for courses including economics, statistics and political science. In 1896 the School moved to larger premises at 10 Adelphi Terrace, overlooking the Thames.
The first prospectus lists 11 lecturers, and the subjects they taught as economics, statistics, commerce, commercial geography, commercial history, commercial and industrial law, currency and banking, taxation and finance, and political science. Classes were held in the morning and evening for working students.
In 1896 the Library was founded, known from 1928 as the British Library of Political and Economic Science.
In 1900 the School joined the reformed University of London, becoming the University’s Faculty of Economics. University of London degrees were first conferred on LSE students in 1902.
The School’s new status required a permanent home and in 1900 the Bishop of London unveiled the foundation stone of our first building on Clare Market. Passmore Edwards Hall, built on land granted to the School by London County Council with funding from the philanthropist John Passmore Edwards, opened in 1902.
On the eve of the First World War the School had 1,681 students which included 583 women and 234 students from overseas.
In 1919 William Beveridge was appointed Director, initiating a period of rapid intellectual and physical development for the School.
In 1920 King George V laid the foundation stone by the main entrance on Houghton Street and in 1938 work was completed on a new building on the east side of Houghton Street. In 1925 Beveridge described the School as "an institution on which the concrete never sets".
The intellectual expansion of the School was supported by funding from the Rockefeller Foundation. In 1931 in a speech to students, Beveridge declared: "Our scope is best defined as a study of man in society." (Beveridge/5/10/16)
In July 1921 Lilian Knowles was appointed Professor of Economic History – becoming the School’s first woman professor. Our first black academic, economist Arthur Lewis was appointed as an assistant lecturer In October 1938. He went on to win the Nobel Prize.
In 1933, William Beveridge was among the founders of the Academic Assistance Council (from 1936 the Society for the Protection of Science and Learning) providing practical support for senior German professors dismissed on racial or political grounds. Appointments at LSE were supported by voluntary donations from staff.
During the Second World War, LSE, under Director Sir Alexander Carr-Saunders (1886-1966), was evacuated to Cambridge where we were hosted by Peterhouse College. The School continued to teach across the social sciences and courses were shared with Cambridge University and Bedford College. Student numbers fell and for the first time women outnumbered men among the student body.
In London Houghton Street was occupied first by the Ministry of Economic Warfare and then the Ministry of Aviation.
46 members of staff entered war service beginning with the School Secretary, Walter Adams, who worked for the Special Operations Executive and then became Deputy Head of the British Political Warfare Mission in Washington.
At the Economic Section of the Offices of the War Cabinet, Lionel Robbins became Director in 1940 and played a major role at the 1944 Bretton Woods Conference.
Former Director William Beveridge's The Beveridge Report, published in 1942, became the basis of the post-war Labour government’s legislation programme for social reform.
LSE returned to London in August 1945, marking our 50thanniversary by reopening to students on 29 October.
By 1951 the School had 2,200 regular students – 567 coming from outside the UK. The 1950s and 1960s were a period of consolidation and development as the School moved into the post-war world.
In 1950 Richard Titmuss was appointed to the Chair of Social Administration, leading the development of the Department of Social Policy. The psychologist, Hilde Himmelweit joined the School in 1949, establishing the Department of Social Psychology in 1964.
In 1954, LSE sociologists produced the Nuffield-sponsored report on Social Mobility in Britain, the product of a five-year study that established the study of social stratification for the next 20 years.
Sir Walter Adams (1906-1975), the principal of University College of Rhodesia and Nyasaland, was appointed Director in 1967. The appointment was opposed by the Students’ Union and led to a period of unrest culminating in numerous sit-ins and the closure of the School after clashes with the School authorities over the installation of security gates. These actions secured student representation on School committees.
Four Nobel Prizes in the Economic Sciences were awarded to economists with LSE connections during the 1970s: John Hicks in 1972, Friedrich Hayek in 1974, James Meade in 1977 and Sir Arthur Lewis in 1979.
In 1978 the Library moved from cramped accommodation in the Old Building into the former headquarters of WHSmith, now renamed the Lionel Robbins Building. The Library Appeal raised over £2 million and for the first time staff and students had direct access to the Library’s extensive collection of books and journals.
In 1986 the University Grants Committee judged the majority of LSE’s research "outstanding" and the Director, I G Patel, commented: "Our outstanding position in research at the frontiers of the economic and social sciences in this country (and abroad) has been recognised."
This was confirmed in the 1989 Universities Funding Council Research Assessment Exercise when LSE scored 93 out of 100 marks.
During the 1990s and 2000s, 12 LSE staff members or alumni received the Nobel Prize. Eleven were recognised in Economic Sciences and one, Juan Manuel Santos, President of Colombia, received the Nobel Peace Prize.
In 2006 the School obtained the right to confer our own degrees and the first LSE degree was conferred in 2008. In recent years, LSE has continued to perform well in league tables and research impact exercises.
Another area of focus has been developing our campus in the heart of London. We have established a presence on Lincoln’s Inn Fields. The New Academic Building, renamed in 2023 to the Cheng Kin Ku Building, designed by Grimshaw, opened in 2008. In 2013, 32 Lincoln’s Inn Fields, renamed in 2023 to the Sir Arthur Lewis Building, became the home of the Department of Economics and related research centres.
The School’s first new build for 40 years was the Saw Swee Hock Student Centre. Designed by O'Donnell & Tuomey, the building was shortlisted for the 2014 Stirling Prize. In the 2020s, the Centre Buildings Redevelopment re-shaped Houghton Street and Clare Market and won numerous awards, while the Marshall Building at 44 Lincoln’s Inn Fields is the latest building to transform campus life.
LSE’s outstanding contribution to social science research was once again recognised by the 2021 Research Excellence Framework (REF). In recent years, the , , and initiatives have sought to showcase the usefulness of LSE research and demonstrate the importance of social science research and investigation to the world we live in.
Our 125th anniversary celebrations in 2020 took place in the midst of a global pandemic, and so we are celebrating our 130th academic year in 2025/26 in a changed world.
Having been named University of the Year 2025 by the Good University Guide, LSE continues to develop and change but our founding purpose "the betterment of society" remains as important as ever.
