It is unclear how the material came to be in the institutional collection of the University of East London. However the Art School appears to have shared premises with the Walthamstow Technical Institute which went on to become South West Essex Technical College, which later merged with other institutions to form North East London Polytechnic, later University of East London.
Before its move to the Docklands Campus, the uncatalogued and unsorted institutional archive was housed in UEL's Barking Campus and an external store. When the Barking Campus closed in 2006, the material which was held onsite was transferred, however the external store material was not and as a consequence is lost.