aBout tHe LSe
 
  The LSE, situated on the junction of Aldywch and Kingsway in Central London, is the UK's foremost social science college, and quite possibly one of the world's finest institutions of its kind - 'The MIT of the Social Sciences', is how our director Professor Anthony Giddens likes to call the school. 

Henry Hunt Hutchison, a member of the Fabian Society of socialists, died in 1894, and left his estate in the hands of Sidney Webb and four other trustees, with instructions to dispose
of the remainder of his estate for socially progressive purposes. Sidney Webb, working without "the formalities of charters and incorporation, of public subscriptions and government grants, boards of trustees and governors", collected subscriptions and started his School. Its aim was to contribute to the improvement of society by promoting the impartial study of its problems and training of those who were to translate policy into action.
 
The London School of Economics and Political Science was opened in October 1895. A year later, in November 1896, the School's library, The British Library of Political and Economic Science, was started. From the beginning, Sidney Webb firmly established the principle that the School was not to be the servant of any political or economic dogma, but only of the impartial pursuit of knowledge and understanding. This was emphasized in the adoption by the School in February 1922 of the motto from Virgil (Felix qui potuit) rerum cognoscere causas, and of the coat-of-arms depicting books (for learning) and the beaver, as 'an industrious animal with social habits' (no, that wasn’t a joke - Andy).

Much of the development of the social sciences in the United Kingdom has its origins in work done at the School. Five Nobel Prizes in Economics have been awarded to former members of Staff at LSE (Sir John Hicks, Sir Arthur Lewis, Professor J.E. Meade, Professor A. Von Hayek and Professor R. Coase). The country's first Sociology department was founded in 1904; one of the first Chairs in International Relations was founded at LSE, in 1924; in 1934, the first organized study of 

 
Criminology was begun. Among many distinguished members of staff may be mentioned Sir Raymond Firth, Morris Ginsberg, Harold Laski, T.H. Marshall, Michael Oakeshott, Sir Karl Popper, Lord Robbins, R.H. Tawney and Richard Titmuss.

Many former students of the School have held important positions in industry and commerce, in the professions and public service, in many parts of the world. Some of the world's major businesses - and many of its governments - have been alumni of the School. At any one time, several Governors of Central Banks, dozens of Government Ministers and several scores of Members of Parliament may be former students - as are over 30 members of the present United Kingdom Parliament.

Now in its second century and in the new millennium, the School is an institution of major international standing in the Social Sciences, it's bizarre architectural features notwithstanding. It remains one of the finest establishments of it's kind in the United Kingdom, and indeed, in the world.

Extracted from "History of the School"
School Calendar 1997-98