Goldsmiths, University of London

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Goldsmiths, University of London


Established	1891
Warden	Professor Geoffrey Crossick
Students	7,660^[1]
Undergraduates	4,700^[1]
Postgraduates	2,570^[1]
Location	London, United Kingdom
Affiliations	University of London, 1994 Group
Website	http://www.goldsmiths.ac.uk/

The Main Building

The Ben Pimlott Building

The Library

Warmington Tower

Goldsmiths, University of London (founded in 1891 as Goldsmiths' Technical and Recreative Institute, rebranded from Goldsmiths College, University of London in 2006^[2]) is a college of the University of London specialising in teaching of and research into creative, cultural and cognitive disciplines.

1 Location
2 History
3 Research and teaching
4 Organisation
5 Student life
6 Sports, clubs, and traditions
7 Alumni
8 See also
9 References
10 External links

[edit] Location

The college is situated in New Cross, a highly populated area of south-east London with a considerable art and music scene. The college's main Richard Hoggart Building was originally designed as a school (opened in 1844) by the architect John Shaw Jr (1803-1870). In addition to this the college has built many more modern buildings to develop more of a campus, including the RIBA award-winning Rutherford Information Services Building completed in 1997 and the Ben Pimlott Building designed by Will Alsop and completed in 2005. On the other side of New Cross Road is a nightclub called The Venue that hosts a variety of tribute acts and by New Cross Gate station is a Sainsbury's supermarket.

[edit] History

In 1891 the Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths set up a Technical and Recreative Institute, using the former Royal Naval School in New Cross as its base. In 1904 the Institute was acquired by the University of London and re-established as Goldsmiths College. Shortly after the acquisition, in 1907, the college added a new arts building, designed by Sir Reginald Blomfield, to the back of the main building. During the Second World War it was decided to evacuate the students and faculty of the college to the University College, Nottingham (now the University of Nottingham), a decision that proved wise when the main building was struck by an incendiary bomb and gutted in 1940 (the building was finally repaired in 1947). During the 1960s the college experienced a rapid expansion in student numbers and the main building was expanded and the Lockwood Building, Whitehead Building, Education Building, Warmington Tower and St James's Hall were all built during this period in order to accommodate the new students. In 1988 Goldsmiths became a full college of the University of London and in 1990 received its Royal Charter. Among its wardens have been Richard Hoggart and Ben Pimlott.

[edit] Research and teaching

Goldsmiths is best known for courses and research relating to creativity and culture, and has a reputation for producing visual artists, particularly those collectively known as YBA. This reputation was largely established by the influence of Michael Craig-Martin, Jon Thompson and Nick De Ville as teaching staff. Its Sociology department has been important in the recent development of the discipline in Britain, with leading sociologists such as Paul Gilroy, Bev Skeggs, Nikolas Rose and Les Back working in the department in recent years. TERU, the Technology Education Research Unit, has been instrumental in understanding how design & technology works in schools; how to encourage learners towards creative interventions that improve the made world; and how to help teachers to support that process. Goldsmiths is also well-known for its Cultural Studies, with leading figures in the discipline such as Angela McRobbie. Furthermore, in the area of Psychology there is Chris French a vocal sceptic of the paranormal who has appeared on television and radio on numerous occasions.

[edit] Organisation

Professor Geoffrey Crossick was appointed Warden of the college in 2005 following the death of Ben Pimlott, who had become Warden in 1998. Alumni are members of the Goldsmiths Society.

[edit] Student life

The college provides, amongst other things, catering facilities, a chaplaincy, a medical centre, a nursery and a gym for student use. Additionally, Goldsmiths Students' Union runs two bars, The Green Room and, above, The Stretch, which links across Dixon Road from the Richard Hogart Building, hosts numerous entertainment events including karaoke, a quiz and bingo on Mondays, the legendary Club Sandwich club night open until between 2 and 3am on Wednesdays and a variety of other nights often featuring indie music. The union also provides student representation[1] and runs both a student magazine (Smiths[2]) and a radio station broadcast online and locally by FM (Wired[3]). All Goldsmiths students are also able to make use of the facilities of the University of London Union.

The university also owns 7 halls of residence which offer accommodation for students:

Batavia Mews
Chesterman House
Dean House
Loring Hall
Surrey House
Surrey House Annexe
Raymont Hall

[edit] Sports, clubs, and traditions

Sport's teams and societies are organised by the Goldsmiths Students' Union. The union runs 18 sports clubs, 11 of which compete in either University of London Union or BUSA leagues. In addition the union runs 35 societies, ranging from political societies (such as the Liberal Democrats society or the Respect society) and identity-oriented societies (for instance the Sikh society and the LGBT society) to interest societies (the Music Society, the Photography Society) and the more eclectic societies (the Made in Goldsmiths Society and the Somewhere Else Society).

An amateur opera company based in the college, Opera Gold, draws its cast from college members past and present.