City Law School
one of the seven schools of City University in the City of London
The City Law School is a law school in London, England, and it is one of the six schools of City St George's, University of London. The law school traces its origins to the Inns of Court School of Law (ICSL), which was founded in 1852. The ICSL became part of City in 2001, and it is now known as The City Law School. Until 1997, the ICSL had a monopoly on the provision of the Bar Vocational Course (BVC; formerly known as the Bar Professional Training Course, or BPTC, and now known as Bar Vocational Studies, or BVS), the obligatory professional training for would-be barristers in England and Wales, before they commence pupillage.
The school was previously divided into two sections across two campuses – the Gloucester Building (west of City's Northampton Square campus), where the academic instruction section was based, and Grays Inn Place, where the professional legal training programmes were based. From September 2021, a new building for The City Law School was developed on Sebastian Street, to the east of Northampton Square.
It provides legal education at all stages, including a three-year undergraduate Bachelor of Laws (LLB) programme, a two-year Graduate Entry LLB degree programme, the Master of Laws (LLM) and the Graduate Diploma in Law (GDL) course (formerly known as the Common Professional Examination). The latter programme enjoys a nationwide reputation as one of Britain's elite qualifying diploma courses for non-law graduates. The school also teaches the Solicitors' Practice Programme (SPP) for would-be solicitors. In 2007, it received the highest grading from the Law Society of England and Wales for its academic provision.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “City Law School” as one of the seven schools of City University in the City of London. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
Why this record matters
The subject matters to the places & architecture register because the source frames it as one of the seven schools of City University in the City of London. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
Maps, plans, fabric surveys and administrative records can establish how the site’s name, extent and function changed over time. The source revision retrieved here is dated Apr 2, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q5123253. VIAF identifies the subject as 168566084. The Library of Congress control number is nb2007021711. Authority coordinates are 51.527, -0.106. 1 of 6 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1852, 2001, 1997 and 2021.
A single description cannot reconcile every naming convention, rebuilding phase or administrative transfer associated with a place. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Treat names, boundaries and functions as historically changeable. Maps, plans, inventories and administrative records can clarify what the place meant at different dates.
- Historic place names
- Jurisdictional context
- Routes into maps and plans
Contemporary maps, plans, listed-building records, estate papers and the responsible local or national archive.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “City Law School”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow City Law School primary sources, City Law School archive and City research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “City Law School”?
- What physical evidence or contemporary plan supports the description?
- Which authority defined the place, boundary or structure at the relevant date?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “City Law School” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.