Lunch Hour Lecture: The beginnings of UCL in Bloomsbury: some parallels with UCL East

This lecture considers the early history of UCL’s campus in Bloomsbury, emphasizing aspects relevant to the establishment of a new campus at the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in Stratford. The research is based on a study of the architectural history of UCL from 1825 to 1939, which will form the backbone of a Survey of London monograph. Based at the Bartlett School of Architecture, the Survey produces detailed architectural and topographical studies of London districts. UCL was the capital’s first university, established on secular lines by a group of radical thinkers in 1825. The university acquired a piece of waste ground in Bloomsbury, then a middle-class residential district, and organized a limited architectural competition for its first building. The successful entry by William Wilkins was severely restricted due to financial limitations, and only the east wing and portico were built. The eventual success of the university propelled its expansion into a mixture of purpose-built blocks and converted buildings, forming a large and complicated campus. The story of UCL’s campus in Bloomsbury navigates a mixture of themes that bear relevance to the creation of a new campus in Stratford, from the renewal of a disused urban site to collaboration and tensions between architects and clients, and the translation of institutional aspirations into built form. Speaker: Amy Smith is Doctoral student and Research Assistant in the Survey of London at Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL. Date: 21 May 2019 UCL's popular public Lunch Hour Lecture series has been running at UCL since 1942, and showcases the exceptional research work being undertaken across UCL. Lectures are free and open to all.