Our History

In 1919, the Cone School of Dancing was established by Grace Cone and her sisters, Lillie and Valerie. The sisters formed a partnership with Olive Ripman at the beginning of WWII, to create the Cone-Ripman School, which then became the Arts Educational Schools in 1947. In 1969 ArtsEd took on a twenty-one year lease of Golden Lane House (near what is now the Barbican) and moved to the City from its final, of five, Kensington homes. When this lease expired in 1986, ArtsEd took over the former Chiswick Polytechnic in Bath Road, which has been our home ever since.

ArtsEd Today

As one of the UK’s leading centres of conservatoire education, ArtsEd provides world-class, contemporary training that is focused on the constantly evolving needs of the performing arts industry in the 21st century.

ArtsEd is unique in the combination of a performing arts secondary school, for young people from 11-18, and the provision of degrees in Musical Theatre and Acting alongside a broad range of evening, weekend and holiday courses.