Senate House (University of London)
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| Senate House | |
 The Senate House of the University of London |
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| Building Information | |
|---|---|
| Name | Senate House |
| Location | London |
| Country | UK |
| Architect | Charles Holden |
| Client | University of London |
| Construction Start Date | 1932 |
| Completion Date | 1937 |
| Style | Art Deco |
Senate House, the administrative centre of the University of London, lies in the heart of Bloomsbury between the School of Oriental and African Studies to the north and the British Museum to the south.
The main building contains the administrative offices of the University of London, including the offices of the Chancellor of the University, as well as the entire collection of the Senate House Library. The building consists of 19 floors and is 210 feet (64 m) high. The main entrance is from Malet Street to the west and the rear entrance from Russell Square to the east.
Contents |
[edit] Senate House Library
The fourth to the nineteenth floors of the building accommodate Senate House Library (formerly known as the University of London Library), which is open to staff and students of all colleges within the university and contains material relevant chiefly to arts and social science subjects.
The library is administered by the central university as part the University of London Research Library Services and in 2005 had over 32,000 registered users. It is the second largest library in London, outside that of the British Library, less than one mile to the North. The library holds over two million volumes, including an impressive 120,000 volumes printed before 1851. [1] The Library’s history goes back to the official foundation of the University of London in 1836 but it really began life in 1871 when a bookfund was started.
Along with a subscription to over 5200 Journals, other resources include the Goldsmiths' Library of Economic Literature and the Palaeography room, the largest public collection in Europe of books relating to the study of western manuscripts. The library also holds over 170,000 theses by Graduate students.
[edit] History
After the First World War the University of London, then based at the Imperial Institute in Kensington was in urgent need of new office and teaching space to allow for its growth and expansion. In 1921 the government bought eleven acres (4.4 ha) of land there from the Duke of Bedford to provide a new site for the University. However many within the university were opposed to a move, and in 1926 the Duke of Bedford bought back the land. The election of William Beveridge however to the post of Vice-Chancellor of the University in June 1926 was highly significant in that Beveridge supported a move to Bloomsbury. Beveridge persuaded the Rockefeller Foundation to donate £400,000 to the University and the original site was reacquired in 1927.
The grand Art Deco design was the work of architect Charles Holden, who was appointed as architect in February 1931. Construction work then began in 1932, and King George V laid the ceremonial foundation stone on 26 June 1933. The building was completed five years later in 1937.
The structure is often considered to be Londons first skyscraper. Its impressive size hailed the start of what was to be the largest seat of learning in the world; the original plans, however, detailed a building three times its original size, extending from the British Museum to the Octagon of University College London. A lack of funding and the onset of the Second World War deterred the original plans. A model of the full scheme can be seen today on the first floor.
During the 1930s Oswald Mosley, leader of the British Union of Fascists, intended to house Parliament in the building in the event of his taking power. Hitler also intended it as his headquarters in London after the invasion of Britain - this may be truth or 'urban legend' [2]. An alternate theory is that as the second tallest building in central London, after St. Paul's Cathedral, Senate House was spared by the Luftwaffe as it provided a useful landmark for pilots navigating their way to the East End during the Blitz.
At the outbreak of the Second World War, Senate House became home to the Ministry of Information offices, as the library was transported out of London, to avoid being destroyed by the Luftwaffe.
[edit] Present day
Senate House Tower remains a prominent landmark throughout most of Bloomsbury and is visible from some distance away. The building continues to be home to the Chancellor of the University of London and as the home of the University library. The building is also home to one of central London's largest restaurants. In late 2005 most of the university administrative offices however moved to the adjacent building, Stewart House (32 Russell Square). As of 2006 the future of Senate House is being greatly discussed, as both the role of the University of London is under debate as is, the Bloomsbury area. [3]
A current in-joke within the university is that you can tell someone's political persuasion from how they describe the building's external architecture - if they call it 'fascist', they're left leaning; if they call it 'totalitarian' or 'Stalinist', they're right leaning.
[edit] In popular culture
It is thought that the move of the Ministry of Information in the Second World War may have been a source of inspiration for the Ministry of Truth buildings in George Orwell's novel Nineteen Eighty-Four. Also, a library office there may have been the inspiration for Room 101 in that novel's Ministry of Love. Senate House is also popular with the film and television industries as a shooting location:
[edit] Film and TV appearances
- Film of Richard III, 1995 (UK/USA), starring Ian McKellen
- Film of Nineteen Eighty-Four (Ministry of Love)
- Film of Blue Ice Thriller starring Michael Caine & Sean Young (the Royal Hotel)
- Film of Batman Begins (the hall of the courthouse)
- Film of Enduring Love
- Film of The Day of the Triffids, as 'the London tower'
- Foyle's War, Series 2, Episode 3, War Games
- Jeeves and Wooster; Seasons 3-4 - used for exterior shots of Stuyvesant Towers, Bertie Wooster's Manhattan residence.
- Silent Witness
- The pornographic film Spyboy (MI69 headquarters)
- The Day of the Triffids (TV series), Episode 3 from the 6 part, half-hour BBC TV series from 1981.
