The Guildford Working Men's Institute was a successor to the Guildford Institute which itself was formed on 14 June 1843 out of a union of the Mechanics' Institute founded in 1834 and the Literary and Scientific Institution, founded in 1835. By 1859 the Institute had 541 students. In 1892 the Guildford Institute and the Guildford Working Men's Institution were amalgamated under the title of the Guildford and Working Men's Institution offering both technical and art classes. The Guildford Institute and the Science, Art and Technical classes run by Surrey County Council separated in 1910. In 1939, the institution, then known as the School of Art, moved into Stoke Park Mansion.