Gresham left his estate jointly to the Corporation of London and to the Mercers' Company, which operate through a Joint Grand Gresham Committee under the presidency of the Lord Mayor of London. Gresham's may provided for the setting higher of the College -- around Gresham's mansion around Bishopsgate (on the site nowadays occupied by Tower 42, a previous NatWest Tower), & endowed it by having a rental income from either shops sited in the area of the Royal Exchange, which Gresham had established.

A early profits of the College led to the incorporation of the Royal Society in 1663, which pursued its activities at the College within Bishopsgate before moved to its own assumption around Crane Court around 1710. A College remained around Gresham's mansion around Bishopsgate until 1768, and moved all about London thenceforth until a construction within 1842 of its own buildings around Gresham Street EC2. Gresham College did non turn into a share of the University of London on the founding of the University in the 19th century, although a close association between a College & a University persisted for numerous years. Since 1991 the College has operated at Barnard's Inn Hall, Holborn EC1.

Gresham's sevener original endowed chairs of Divinity, Music, Astronomy, Geometry, Physic (meaning Medicine), Law and Rhetoric hearkened back to the curriculum of the mediaeval university (the trivium and quadrivium); but as a place for a public & frequent voicing of freshly ideas, the college played an crucial role in the Enlightenment and in the formation of the Royal Society. Its notable prof use at times involved Christopher Wren, who lectured in uranology in the 17th century, and Robert Hooke.

In todays world, a prof hang on to their positions for terzetto years, & an eighth chair, of Commerce, joined the original sevener inside 1985. Since 2000, the college has regularly hosted camping professors to lecture in topics outside its common range, & it likewise hosts occasional seminars & conferences.