Vital springboard for the likes of Adele and Amy Winehouse? Or conveyor belt for beige pop? Staff, famous alumni and critics of the Brit performing arts school consider its complicated legacy
When it opened in Croydon, south London, in 1991, few knew that the Brit School – part of the Thatcher government’s controversial City Technology Colleges initiative – would change the landscape of British music.
An independent, free-to-attend arts school funded by the government with support from the Brit Trust, it was propelled into the spotlight in the mid-00s thanks to its first crop of musical talent. While alumni such as Amy Winehouse, Adele and the Feeling became hugely successful, and in total its students have collectively sold more than 250m albums and won 15 Brit awards, the school has also been the subject of much criticism.
