After the Second World War the college specialised in A and O Level teaching. The public perception of DLD and other crammers, as they were known, was not always complimentary: dingy classrooms in badly lit attics, not much equipment, little music and less drama.

In the early seventies former student Martin Amis, in his first novel 'The Rachel Papers' described the tutors barely half a mile from Campden Hill Square where the aim of the tour of the school was nothing more ambitious …than to show me it wasn't a workhouse or a blacking factory.

The days of poky attics and cramming are now long over. Over a twenty-year period there has been a gradual transformation so that DLD now provides full time education for 350 15-19 year olds.

In 2004 DLD moved from Notting Hill to an outstanding educational environment in a campus spanning two linked buildings in Marylebone in the heart of London. This move marked the final stage in the transition to a new type of independent college. We have kept the best of the past - our tradition of excellent, small group teaching.  But now we have excellent facilities too. Our 80-seat theatre can also be used as a television studio, cinema and concert hall. Our recording studio has the latest music technology equipment. There are three art studios: fine art, 3D, textiles.

Our students come to us attracted by the wide range of subjects and because DLD is, in some ways, quite different from a school.

There are few rules, none of them petty. Those rules we do have relate to two important aspects of college life: academic performance, and respect for each other. There are no bells or uniforms; there is no cause to rebel.