| AdminHistory | The Liverpool School of Commerce, later known as the Liverpool College of Commerce, began as a joint venture between Liverpool's business sector and educationalists, and links with the business and legal communities. It was founded in 1898 between the City of Liverpool Education Committee, the Liverpool Chamber of Commerce, and the 1881 Liverpool University College which was to become the University of Liverpool in 1903.
At a meeting of the Chamber of Commerce, reported on in the Liverpool Mercury on 4 July 1899, the then Chairman F C Danson was quoted stating that both day and evening classes in the first year of teaching had been so well supported and planned that this was 'an important departure, and Liverpool was the first place in England to establish any such schools or to make any attempt at teaching commercial knowledge.' However, by 1909, both the Chamber of Commerce and University of Liverpool had withdrawn from the venture, and the School was left in the sole hands of the City of Liverpool Education Committee. Teaching becae more fragmented, with some classes being taught in the Liverpool School of Science, Technology and Art, later known as the Liverpool Central Technical School, which the Liverpool Education Committee described as unsatisfactory in 1918: 'There is no building in Liverpool known as the School of Commerce. The Language Classes, and from time to time, other classes have been held in suites of offices at the top of one of the staircases in Exchange Buildings. Bankers' classes have been held at the Bankers' Institute; insurance classes at the Oulton School. Courses in shipping and railway management from time to time have been held at the Central Technical School .. . other classes have been held in the evenings at the Collegiate School.'
In 1923, the City of Liverpool's Scheme of Education recognised the need for consolidation and moved the School of Commerce to the to Walter Street, and then later to a new purpose-built building on Tithebarn Street, constructed between 1928 and 1931 and crowned with an impressive sculpture of Neptune. The extension to this building was completed in 1953 and opened on 19 March 1954, with a noteworthy new Library. However, by 1964, Her Majesty's Inspectors deemed the facilities inadequate, despite recognising the College's educational progress.
By 1964 there were four Departments: Accountancy and Business Administration; Commerce; Languages; and Professional Studies. By the academic year 1967-1968, these increased to five with the introduction of Law and Liberal Studies. Degrees were being validated by the University of London, until 1970 the College was transferred to the new Liverpool Polytechnic, at which point validation moved to the Council for National Academic Awards (CNAA).
In 1992, the Liverpool Polytechnic became Liverpool John Moores University after 1992, and the modern equivalent of the College is LJMU's Faculty of Business and Law. This move precipitated the creation of the Liverpool Business School, plus the Department of Social Science, and eventually the School of Law in the newly formed Polytechnic. In the early 1980s, the School moved to the former Notre Dame College, previously a convent and school on Mount Pleasant, named after the distinguished Liverpool architect John Foster Jr who lived there. Notre Dame College joined with what was then the Liverpool Institute of Higher Education, later to become Hope University.
Notable alumni of the College of Commerce include David Lynch, who studied for his Law degree at night school in the College, and eventually lectured in law part-time in the mid-1960s before being called to the Bar in 1968.
For more overviews of the history of the Liverpool College of Commerce, see:
Webster, R., and Wilkie, S., 2017. The Making of a Modern University: Liverpool John Moores University (London: Third Millenium Publishing), pp.82-85. A copy of this can be made available via LJMU Special Collections & Archives. |
| CustodialHistory | All of the records in this SubSection were transferred to LJMU's Archives in the early 2000s from Byrom Street with no documentation. There is an unknown number of other records still at the James Parsons building currently on display. |