Founded in 1872 in London as the Royal Normal College and Academy for the Blind, the college had a number of homes before moving to its campus in Hereford; it was renamed the Royal National College for the Blind in the late 1970s. It has been a pioneer in the education of visually impaired people in Britain since the Victorian era, and, as of 2010, is the only college for visually impaired students in the United Kingdom to have been awarded Beacon Status in recognition of its outstanding teaching and learning.