John "Hoppy" Hopkins, Peter Jenner, Joe Boyd, Ron Atkins, Barry Miles, Michael de Freitas, John Michell, Julie Felix, Michael Horovitz and Nigel Waymouth and others, met at Hoppy's flat in Queensway, London, twice a month. Inspired by the American Free Universities and the Victorian Jewish Free School in Spitalfields, the group wanted to offer a wide range of classes including photography, music and mental health. Everyone involved had had some form of further education, but felt that it wasn't what it set out to be and wasn't very good. So they set out to create a school that did the opposite. They set up the first meeting on 8 March 1966 and 120 people turned up, 50 expressing an interest in lessons. Over the spring and summer months, classes began. They weren't official classes, more just people sitting and talking and smoking. By the autumn, things picked up and there were too many people wanting to attend. Rhaune Laslett offered the free school the use of her house for classes.