Heatherley School of Fine Art

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The Heatherley School of Fine Art was named after Thomas Heatherley who took over as principal from James Matthew Leigh (when it was named "Leigh's"). Founded in 1845, the school is affectionately known as Heatherley's. It is probably the oldest independent art school in London and is among the few art colleges in Britain that focus on portraiture, figurative painting and sculpture.

Burne Jones, Rossetti, Millais, Lord Leighton, Russel Flint, Michael Ayrton and Sickert are numbered amongst its former students as was the first Principal of the Slade School of Art, Sir Edmund Poynter and the first Principal of the Royal College of Art, Walter Crane.

Heatherley’s was the first school to admit women on equal terms with men.