The college was opened as the Teachers' Training & Registration Society College on 1 May 1878 in the Clergy House, Skinner Street, Bishopsgate (now Pindar Street). In some literature it is recorded as the first teacher training college for women, however Whitelands College (now part of the University of Roehampton) opened in 1841 as a women's teacher training college and was the first such college in England for women. The Teachers' Training & Registration Society was created by the Women's Education Union to promote women's right to education and the professional recognition of female teachers. The Society was promoted by Maria Georgina Grey, who had also been fundamental in the founding of the Union.
