The origins of the Liverpool Institute and School of Arts lay in 1825 with the creation of the Liverpool Mechanics' School of Arts, which in 1832 became the Liverpool Mechanics' Institution. By 1840 the Institution offered evening classes, lectures, a library and a boys' lower and upper school. By the 1850s a formal art school was evolving from the evening classes and in 1856 this diversity was recognised by another name change - The Liverpool Institute and School of Arts. A girls' school was founded and opened in 1844 under the name Liverpool Institute High School for Girls. By the 1880s the Institute consisted of the High School, Commercial School, Girls' School, Government School of Art, Queen's College, Evening School, Reading Room and Library.In 1905 the Liverpool City Council took over the management of the secondary schools when the Institute's Board of Governors presented the schools and assets to the City.