Kensington Arts occupies the purpose-built School of Art that opened on Kensington Road in April 1884, home to the Douglas School of Art. The school had a shaky start, with falling student numbers and resignations threatening it with closure within its first year, but a new art master appointed in January 1885 steadied its fortunes and the school went on to grow and be extended. Among its students and later teachers was the Manx Art Nouveau designer Archibald Knox. The school of art moved out in 1970 to a new College of Further Education on the edge of Douglas, and the original Kensington Road building has since continued in cultural use, today known as Kensington Arts, a youth arts centre.