Its forerunners were the Royal College of Chemistry (founded in 1845) and the Government School of Mines and Sciences Applied to the Arts (founded in 1851). Money from the Great Exhibition of 1851 was used to buy land at South Kensington for 'educational purposes,' providing space for the Science Museum and the Natural History Museum, as well as for both of these scientific colleges, which merged to form the Normal College of Science.
The name was based on the Ecole Normale de Paris, but in 1881 the name Royal College of Science was granted by Royal Consent.
In 1907, the college merged with the Royal School of Mines and the City and Guilds College to form the Imperial College of Science and Technology, becoming a Constituent College of Imperial, which then joined the University of London.
In the late 1990s, the suffix 'and Medicine' was added to Imperial College's name, following its merger with a number of medical schools, forming a fourth constituent college,
In 2000, Imperial College merged with Wye College, of which roughly one-fifth was designated as part of the Royal College of Science.
In 2002, Imperial abolished all the constituent colleges, including the Royal College of Science, in favour of a new faculty structure.