Item LSBU/6/3/3 - The Borough Polytechnic Institute - Its Origin and Development by Edric Bayley

Chair of the Governors of the Borough Polytechnic Institute, 1892-1905. Born in Bath, he attended Oriel College, Oxford, graduating in 1867. In that year he was resident in London and applied to become a solicitor. By 1875 he was living in Southwark, and a partner in a legal practice. In 1881 he was clerk of St Olave District Board of Works.

In 1885 he was elected to the London School Board as one of the representatives of Southwark, holding the seat until 1891. At this time the Charity Commissioners were empowered to take control of various charitable funds held by depopulated City of London parishes and redistribute them to "to improve the physical and moral condition" of residents of the Metropolis. Bayley set up the South London Polytechnic Institutes Council in 1887, whose members included the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Lord Mayor of London. Evan Spicer became its chairman and the Prince of Wales the president of the council. In 1888 the Charity Commissioners agreed to provide match funds up to £150,000 to establish three polytechnics in South London. Eventually only two polytechnics: Battersea and Borough were established. Bayley was the first chairman of the board of governors of Borough Polytechnic which was officially by Lord Rosebery on 30 September 1892.

Bayley, having stood down from the school board in November 1891, was elected to the London County Council as a Progressive Party councillor for Southwark West. He held the seat until 1907.

He died at his home in Phillimore Gardens, Kensington, in July 1920 aged 78, and was cremated at Golders Green Crematorium.