Whitelands College
| Whitelands College | |
|---|---|
| University | University of Roehampton |
| Location | Roehampton, London, England |
| Established | 1841 |
| Named for | Whitelands House on the King's Road in Chelsea |
| Website | http://www.roehampton.ac.uk/whitelands/ |
Whitelands College is one of the four constituent colleges of the University of Roehampton.
History
One of the oldest higher education institutions in England (predating every university except Oxford, Cambridge, London and Durham), Whitelands College was founded by the Church of England's National Society in 1841 as a teacher training college for women. It has consequently been providing higher education for women for longer than any university or college currently open in England.
Whitelands College was named after Whitelands House on the King's Road in Chelsea, in which it was originally based. In the early-1930s, the college outgrew Whitelands House and moved to buildings by Giles Gilbert Scott in Southfields, near Putney. (The original Chelsea building was sold to the British Union of Fascists in the summer of 1933 and became known as "the Black House".)[1] The college buildings include a Grade I listed Georgian villa, Parkstead House. Built in the early 1760s for the 2nd Earl of Bessborough, the house was extended and renamed Manresa House after the property became a Jesuit novitiate in the mid-nineteenth century. From the novitiate, the Jesuits founded St Joseph Church in Roehampton.[2]
In 1975, Whitelands College entered into an academic federation with three other south-west London teacher training colleges – Digby Stuart, Froebel and Southlands – to form the Roehampton Institute of Higher Education. In 2000, the Institute federated with the University of Surrey to become the University of Surrey Roehampton. In late 2003, the University of Surrey Roehampton announced that it would submit an application for independent university status. This was granted on 1 August 2004.
Present
In 2005, Whitelands vacated the Southfields site and relocated to Roehampton, overlooking Richmond Park. (The main building on the Southfield site was later converted into luxury housing.)[3]
References
- ↑ Thomas P. Linehan, "East London for Mosley", Routledge, 1996, p. 254.
- ↑ Welcome, Whitelands College Retrieved 17 February 2013
- ↑ Whitelands College History, Roehampton University, 14 March 2009.