The teaching staff initially consisted of W. Dacres Adams, D. Murray Smith and C. Austin Cooper; additional lectures were given by Evelyn Eunice Pyke-Nott (Mrs. Byam Shaw), Kenneth Martin and Percival Silley.

[3] Other early members of the staff were Ernest Jackson, who was principal of the school from 1926 to 1940,[4], and the late Pre-Raphaelite painter Eleanor Fortescue-Brickdale.

[5] The painter and art educator Maurice de Sausmarez was principal of the school from 1962 until his death in 1969.

[6] During his time at Byam Shaw de Sausmarez championed choosing students based on their talent rather than the entrance requirements set by the local authority.

[1] Among those who studied at the Byam Shaw School of Art are artists such as Winifred Nicholson, Bernard Dunstan, Yinka Shonibare, Mona Hatoum, the stained glass artist Evie Hone[9] and the wood-engraver Blair Hughes-Stanton; theatre designers including Maria Björnson,[10] Laurence Irving and Stefanos Lazaridis; the inventor James Dyson; the actor John Standing and the musician Paul Simonon.