History

At its foundation in the 19th Century by the UK and Colonial Governments the underlying purpose of the (then) Imperial Institute was education and research. Initially this was strongly biased towards scientific research that supported the industrial and commercial development of the Dominions and Colonies.

For much of the 20th Century the Overseas Governments made significant capital and revenue contributions to the Institute and played an active part in its affairs. Exhibition galleries were established to promote trade and research was undertaken to assist commercial/industrial development and to underpin the Commonwealth Preference trading arrangements.

This was the situation when the Kensington site was acquired in 1958. What was by then the Commonwealth Institute was required to move from its then premises to Kensington High Street when the British Government wished to acquire the site to enable further development of the adjacent Imperial Institute of Science and Technology in support of the post war drive to educate more scientists. The building in High Street Kensington was designed to house permanent exhibitions about the individual countries of the Commonwealth created with funds from overseas governments and non governmental commercial organisations and trade bodies. It was completed in 1962 and opened by H.M. The Queen in November of that year.

During the next ten years the exhibitions attracted much interest. However once Commonwealth Preference fell away with British accession to the then EEC in the 1970’s, so too did the relevance of the exhibitions in the eyes of the Member Nations. Their contributions to the Institute diminished dramatically leaving the cost of maintaining the Institute and the exhibitions to be borne by the UK Government.

The Institute then was funded almost exclusively by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and it became a Non Departmental Public Body responsible to the FCO. In this capacity the Institute carried out education activities aimed in particular at young people through the use of the exhibitions and associated programmes about the Commonwealth, its cultures and peoples. In 2000 the Commonwealth Institute was restructured as a Trust the members of which are all Member Governments of the Commonwealth who elect a Board of Trustees responsible to them.

When the exhibitions in the galleries of the Kensington building closed in the late 1990's the materials that Member countries wished to have back were returned to them and the balance placed in store. Subsequently the remaining artefacts and the reference and literature library were gifted by deed of trust to The British Empire and Commonwealth Museum.

The Kensington property was sold on 15 May 2007 and the net proceeds were gifted to The Commonwealth Education Trust, successor to the Commonwealth Institute.