The Working Men’s College was founded in 1854 and is one of Britain’s oldest institutions for adult education. Since its establishment, it has occupied buildings on Red Lion Square in Holborn (1854–1857), Great Ormond Street in Bloomsbury (1857–1905), and its current premises on Crowndale Road in the Somers Town district of northwest London. The college was founded on Christian Socialist principles, and its founders included the theologian Frederick Denison Maurice and the author Thomas Hughes. Notable supporters of the college included Dante Gabriel Rossetti, John Stuart Mill, and Charles Kingsley. John Ruskin, William Morris, John Tyndall, and Edward Burne-Jones all taught during the college’s tenure at Great Ormond Street. Teaching was undertaken by professionals on a volunteer basis.