Somerset House booklet circa 1963

'G' COLL G ' LO DO AND SOMERSET ODS

KING'S COLLEG E LONDON and SOMERSET HOUSE SUMMARY I INTRODUCTION Origin of King's College and its site on Crown land.

II ACADEMIC MATTER Instruction given at the College - its variety and distinction.

Numbers of staff and students in the seven faculties. Recent developments and constantly increasing research activity.

III THE SITE AND SOMERSET HOUSE Importance of central site. Area of College originally one and a half acres - to be increased to two and three-quarters when new perimeter buildings are completed. These new buildings will not allow any real expansion - only adequate relief from present congestion.

Need for Somerset House as University site - its possibilities. Arguments why it should be assigned by the Government to Kings' College.

Introduction In the year 1500 A.D. there were seventy-six universities in Europe.

Of these, two were in England, and honourable mention should be made of the three in Scotland. It was not until the ninteenth century, and as a result of the industrial revolution and the great social changes following the Napoleonic wars that the situation altered in England, and even then the foundation of Colleges in Durham, Manchester and other northern centres was the outcome of private enterprise based on technical necessity or the stirring of social consciences. It was not until the present century that universities became the concern of the central government, and their support, and still more recently their foundation, a national responsibility.

London was no exception. Every other capital city in Europe had a university before 1836. And in London itself both King's College and University College were established before the University of London in which eighty years later they were incorporated, but which in a very real sense they themselves brought into being.

From its foundation in 1829 by Royal Charter on a plot of land, leased from the Crown for a peppercorn, of some one and a half acres in extent immediately adjacent to Somerset House, King's College has enjoyed the patronage of the Sovereign, has had the Primate as its Visitor, and during the 19th century counted among its official governors the Lord Chancellor (who still remains), the Speaker of the House of Commons, and the Lord Mayor of London.

Academic Matters Contrary to a widely-held view, King's was not founded as a Theological College - the department of Theology first appeared in 1846 - though it was established as an institution in which Christian principles were intended to influence its development as a place of education, religion and learning.

Within this framework for eighty years the College provided university instruction in Arts, Engineering, Law, Medicine, Science and Theology. It also broke new ground, giving courses in Chinese and Arabic, establishing a Day Training College, founding the Gilbart Lectures in Banking, and setting up a department for the education of women. The present School of Slavonic Studies, th'e School of Household and Domestic Science (now Queen Elizabeth College), and King's College Hospital with its medical school all had their genesis in the one and a half acres to the east of Somerset House. The development of the nineteenth century foreshadowed and underlined at once the outstanding natural asset of the College its central site - and its constant difficulty in finding within its precincts sufficient space to contain its active and expanding academic activities.

Since 1919, and even more markedly since 1945 these activities have increased and grown stronger. To the great names of the last century - Lister, Wheatstone, Clerk Maxwell, Maurice - have been added four Nobel Laureates in this, and with the distinction of the teachers has come in ever-increasing numbers the throng of young enthusiastic research workers, anxious in their turn to discover, to experiment, to contribute. In 1963 the professoriate of the College was forty-three: of these nine were Fellows of the Royal Society, and four Fellows of the British Academy. The undergraduates were some 1,850, the postgraduates some 400, and in addition to a total academic staff of roughly 270, there were a number of senior research workers from allover the world attached to the various departments in College.

The departments themselves have multiplied. Since 1945 Biophysics and War Studies, and Palaeography have been established as independent units - all attracting research workers. The University Faculty of Theology has been centred at King's, and from October 1964 the University Faculty of Music has been assigned to the College.

And for the near future the Professorial Board proposes to set up a School of Biological Studies. Undergraduate examination standards and results compare most favourably - especially in the Natural Sciences - with those of any institution in the country.

The Site As has already been said, King's College has an incalculable asset in its central site. It is accessible from all the railway termini, and is served outside both its entrances by buses and underground stations.

It is not a place of cloistered seclusion: the bustle and activity of the metropolis at its gates brings both stimulus and reality to the discipline of teaching and learning for all. For the members of the Arts Faculty it has the great libraries of London, the Public Record Office and the smaller specialised collections within reach. The Lawyers have their Inns and their Courts of Justice, the Engineers their Institutions, the Medicals their hospitals and Royal Colleges' libraries, the Scientists their Societies' Rooms and resources, the Musicians their concerts, whilst for all there is the opportunity for participation in the social, academic and cultural life of a capital which is the site and centre of. conferences and meetings of world-wide importance.

But the site on which the College stands is tiny. To the original one and a half acres an accelerating process of purchase and acquisition has added another acre to the North and East along the Strand and down Surrey Street. On this perimeter the College has plans already approved by the V.G.C. for the erection of new buildings, and in these new buildings the College will be able to conduct its teaching and other activities in circumstances which will provide no more than adequate amenities as is ap'preciated by the V.G.C. The present impossibly cramped and restrictive conditions will be improved, but it must be emphasised that except in Engineering and Laws, where the undergraduate numbers will be increased from 200 to 300 and from 200 to 250 respectively, the new Quadrilateral Buildings will permit of no expansion for the undergraduate teaching which feeds the schools of research here and elsewhere. And considering the speed and complexity with which modern research is developing, the research facilities already committed, will before long again become restrictive.

Faced with this prospect, the College has turned again with renewed confidence to the prospect to the West, to Somerset House. To acquire Somerset House in many ways is not only the ideal solution for the accommodation problems of King's College - it is fast becoming the only possible solution. See photograph.

Because of the quality and architectural distinction of Somerset House, its use by the College would provide the Capital with a

University precinct on the Strand of which London could be proud.

With its magnificent quadrangle it inevitably suggests that it was designed for Collegiate purposes, and those who are fortunate enough to work in such surroundings derive from them lasting if intangible advantages.

The College, once Somerset House was acquired, could look forward to a long period of both expansion and consolidation. Expansion would be possible in undergraduate numbers - it is estimated that the present 2,000 could become 3,500. Expansion would be possible for the library, for the development of teaching in new fields of law, for the expansion of study in South American problems, and facilities on a proper scale would be available for the rapidly increasing interest in theoretical physics and computing techniques.

Consolidation would be achieved, with adequate space, for the lead in research activities in mathematics, already strongly developed at King's. The important current trends to give graduates especially in Engineering, postgraduate courses or a general training in research methods could be fully implemented.

Equally important, in view of the national needs, a School of Education centred on the College could be established. All faculties in King's have expressed their willingness to support thi.s proposal, which at present is impossible on our existing site, even when the Quadrilateral Buildings are completed.

These buildings themselves would be turned to good account if Somerset House were obtained, as they would provide much needed room for further expansion in Engineering and the experimental sciences.

Provided the Government accepts, as it does, the premise of university education in the metropolis, then the site problem is bound to be an expensive one. King's College by its present no less than by its past ventures to think that it justifies a far-seeing treatlnent. The central site is paramount; the student accommodation problem is not difficult as in provincial cities, because King's students, if they do not live at home or in halls of residence, have the whole of Greater London in which to find flats or lodgings. The administrative, technical and clerical resources of London are unmatched. Above all, the quality of the teaching and research staff, attracted to the Capital, is high, and deserves well.

Somerset House adjoins King's College physically already: it is within the power of the Government to make it part of King's College, and this the College believes to be the right policy, financially, academically, aesthetically and in the national interest.