The Barbara Speake Stage School was opened on 10 February 1945 and remains one of the longest established stage schools in the world. It is an independent school, and was initially set up as a dancing school, by the present principal Miss Barbara Speake, MBE, and located in East Acton, London. The school is fee-paying but non-selective in its admissions. One of its founders, Barbara Speake, went on to receive an MBE from Queen Elizabeth II in the New Years Honours list of 2007, for her services to the arts. Collins died on her 98th birthday on 6 November 2011.