Westfield College

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Westfield College was a small college, based in Hampstead in North London, that was founded by Kathleen Chesney in 1882. Until 1968 it was women-only, and as late as the early 1980s residences were segregated and the opposite sex were banned from each other's halls under the so-called "11:30 rule".

The College was part of the University of London. In the late 1980s, it was merged with Queen Mary College, forming Queen Mary and Westfield College, with the new college being situated at Queen Mary's site in Mile End, East London. However, some departments moved to King's College London, who took over some of the Westfield site and now use it as a hall of residence for undergraduate and postgraduate students. Many academic staff moved to other colleges, such as Royal Holloway College.

The former Westfield site in Hampstead has been divided up over the years. The majority of the Southside of the site (The Queen's Building and other teaching blocks) was demolished in the early 1990s to make way for The Westfield Apartments, a block of luxury private flats. The remainder of the Southside (The Caroline Skeel Library, Ellison, Temple, Chesney and Stocks buildings) was used by King's College as accommodation and as an archive; however, this part of the site is now for sale. The Northside of the site (Queen Mother Hall, Bay House, Old House, Maynard, Lady Chapman, Orchard I and II, Dudin-Brown and Skeel buildings) remains in use as accommodation for students, with Orchard I and II renamed for Lord Cameron and Rosalind Franklin, respectively. Until 2005, the Old House was home to the London Jewish Cultural Centre.

Since the early 2000s Queen Mary and Westfield College has gone by the name Queen Mary, University of London, although in its charter it is still formally named Queen Mary and Westfield. The college's new student accommodation complex (opened in 2004) is officially named the Westfield Student Village as a reminder of the history of the college.

The history of the College, entitled Castle Adamant in Hampstead, was published in 1983 by Janet Sondheimer.

[edit] Trivia

Westfield was the prototype for the University for Women parodied in Gilbert and Sullivan's comic opera Princess Ida.

The author Andrea Newman, who wrote Bouquet of Barbed Wire was an alumnus of the College, and another of her novels is set there.

Westfield was also the site of one of the Sex Pistols' earliest performances on November 21, 1975.


Correction: Westfield College was not founded by Kathleen Chesney, as she was born in 1899. Chesney was Principal of Westfield from 1951-1962. The founders of Westfield College include Constance Louisa Maynard (1849-1935), who was Mistress/Principal from 1882-1913, and Ann Dudin Brown (1823-1917), who was the founding benefactress and Council member from 1882-1917.

[edit] Alumni

[edit] External links

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