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Senate House (University of London)
Encyclopedia
Senate House is the administrative centre of the University of London
, situated in the heart of Bloomsbury
, London
between the School of Oriental and African Studies
to the north, with 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, and seven of the ten research institutes of the School of Advanced Study
(SAS).
The Art Deco
building was constructed between 1932 and 1937 as the first phase of a large uncompleted scheme designed for the University by Charles Holden
. It consists of 19 floors and is 210 feet (64 m) high, making it the second tallest building in London (after St Paul's Cathedral
) when it was completed. The building's use by the Ministry of Information during the Second World War
inspired George Orwell
's description of the Ministry of Truth
in his novel Nineteen Eighty-Four
.
was in urgent need of new office and teaching space to allow for its growth and expansion. In 1921, the government bought 11 acres (4.5 ha) of land in Bloomsbury
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 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 as 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.
Beveridge saw the university as one "for the nation and the world, drawing from overseas as many students as Oxford and Cambridge and all the other English universities together." and specified that "the central symbol of the University on the Bloomsbury site can not fittingly look like an imitation of any other University, it must not be a replica from the Middle Ages. It should be something that could not have been built by any earlier generation than this, and can only be at home in London ... (the building) means a chance to enrich London - to give London at its heart not just more streets and shops ... but a great architectural feature ... an academic island in swirling tides of traffic, a world of learning in a world of affairs."
The grand art deco
design was the work of Charles Holden
, who was appointed as architect in March 1931 from a short list which also included Giles Gilbert Scott
, Percy Scott Worthington and Arnold Dunbar Smith. In making their choice, Beveridge and the Principal, Edwin Deller, were influenced by the success of Holden's recently completed 55 Broadway
, designed as the headquarters for the London Electric Railway
and then the tallest office building in London.
Holden's original plan for the university building was for a single structure covering the whole site, stretching almost 1200 feet (365.8 m) from Montague Place to Torrington Street. It comprised a central spine linked by a series of wings to the perimeter façade and enclosing a series of courtyards. The scheme was to be topped by two towers; the taller Senate House and a smaller one to the north. The design featured elevations of load-bearing brick work faced with Portland stone
. Construction began in 1932 and was undertaken by Holland, Hannen & Cubitts
. King George V
laid the ceremonial foundation stone on 26 June 1933. Due to a lack of funds, the full design was gradually cut back, and only the Senate House and Library were completed in 1937, although the external flanking wings of the north-eastern courtyard were not constructed. As he had with his earlier buildings, Holden also prepared the designs for the individual elements of the interior design
. The completion of the buildings for the Institute of Education and the School of Oriental Studies followed, but the onset of the Second World War prevented any further progress on the full scheme.
The architectural character and scale of the building has received both positive and negative criticism since its construction. Steen Eiler Rasmussen
, a friend of Holden, commented that, with the expansive design, "the London University is swallowing more and more of the old houses, and this quarter – which the Duke of Bedford laid out for good domestic houses – has taken on quite a different character." Evelyn Waugh
, in Put Out More Flags
, describes it as "the vast bulk of London University insulting the autumnal sky."
Positive comments came from functionalist
architect Erich Mendelsohn
in 1938, who wrote to Holden that he was "very much taken and am convinced that there is no finer building in London." Architectural historian Arnold Whittick described the building as a "static massive pyramid ... obviously designed to last for a thousand years", but thought "the interior is more pleasing than the exterior. There is essentially the atmosphere of dignity, serenity and repose that one associates with the architecture of ancient Greece." Nikolaus Pevsner
was less enthusiastic. He described its style as "strangely semi-traditional, undecided modernism" and summarised the result: "The design certainly does not possess the vigour and directness of Charles Holden's smaller Underground stations." Others have described it as Stalinist
, or as totalitarian
due to its great scale.
Holden recognised that his architectural style place himself in "rather a curious position, not quite in the fashion and not quite out of it; not enough of a traditionalist to please the traditionalists and not enough of a modernist to please the modernists."
At the outbreak of the Second World War, Senate House became home to the Ministry of Information and it is considered that it inspired the Ministry of Truth
in George Orwell
's Nineteen Eighty-Four
– Orwell's wife worked in the building for the censorship department of the ministry.
Some schools in constituent colleges, such as the Birkbeck
School of Computer Science and Information Systems (until 2010) , and the School of Advanced Study
(the UK's national centre for the facilitation and promotion of research in the humanities and social sciences) are or were based in Senate House.
The main entrance is from Malet Street
to the west and the rear entrance from Russell Square
to the east.
Senate House Library (formerly known as the University of London Library) occupies the fourth to the eighteenth floors of the building with the public areas of the library on the fourth to seventh floors, which is open to staff and students of all colleges within the university (although levels of access differ between institutions) and contains material relevant chiefly to arts, humanities, and social science subjects.
The library
is administered by the central university as part the Senate House Libraries and in 2005 had over 32,000 registered users. The library holds around three million volumes, including 120,000 volumes printed before 1851. The Library started with the foundation of the University of London in 1836, but began to develop from 1871 when a book fund was started.
Along with a subscription to over 5,200 Journals, other resources include the Goldsmiths' Library of Economic Literature, and the Palaeography
room's collection of western European manuscript
s. The library also holds over 170,000 theses by graduate students. From 2006 onwards, the library has been undergoing a comprehensive refurbishment process.
The Library is also home to the University of London archives, which include the central archive of the University itself and many other collections, including the papers of philanthropist Charles Booth
, philosopher Herbert Spencer
, actress and mystic Florence Farr
, author and artist Thomas Sturge Moore
, writer Opal Whiteley
, and publishing company Gerald Duckworth and Company Ltd
.
Due to its strong architecture, Senate House is popular with the film and television industries as a shooting location; often for official buildings. Films that have featured the building include the 1995 version of Richard III
(Interior of Richard's Headquarters), Nineteen Eighty-Four
(the Ministry of Truth), Blue Ice
(a hotel), Spy Game
(lobby of CIA Headquarters) , Batman Begins
(Lobby of a Court).
For television, the building has featured in Jeeves and Wooster
(the exterior of Wooster's Manhattan apartment building), Dr Who and The Day of the Triffids amongst other programmes.
University of London
-20th century:Shortly after 6 Burlington Gardens was vacated, the University went through a period of rapid expansion. Bedford College, Royal Holloway and the London School of Economics all joined in 1900, Regent's Park College, which had affiliated in 1841 became an official divinity school of the...
, situated in the heart of Bloomsbury
Bloomsbury
-Places:* Bloomsbury is an area in central London.* Bloomsbury , related local government unit* Bloomsbury, New Jersey, New Jersey, USA* Bloomsbury , listed on the NRHP in Maryland...
, London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
between the School of Oriental and African Studies
School of Oriental and African Studies
The School of Oriental and African Studies is a public research university located in London, United Kingdom and a constituent college of the University of London...
to the north, with the British Museum
British Museum
The British Museum is a museum of human history and culture in London. Its collections, which number more than seven million objects, are amongst the largest and most comprehensive in the world and originate from all continents, illustrating and documenting the story of human culture from its...
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, and seven of the ten research institutes of the School of Advanced Study
School of Advanced Study
The School of Advanced Study, a postgraduate institution of the University of London, is the UK's national centre for the promotion and facilitation of research in the humanities and social sciences...
(SAS).
The Art Deco
Art Deco
Art deco , or deco, is an eclectic artistic and design style that began in Paris in the 1920s and flourished internationally throughout the 1930s, into the World War II era. The style influenced all areas of design, including architecture and interior design, industrial design, fashion and...
building was constructed between 1932 and 1937 as the first phase of a large uncompleted scheme designed for the University by Charles Holden
Charles Holden
Charles Henry Holden, Litt. D., FRIBA, MRTPI, RDI was a Bolton-born English architect best known for designing many London Underground stations during the 1920s and 1930s, for Bristol Central Library, the Underground Electric Railways Company of London's headquarters at 55 Broadway and for the...
. It consists of 19 floors and is 210 feet (64 m) high, making it the second tallest building in London (after St Paul's Cathedral
St Paul's Cathedral
St Paul's Cathedral, London, is a Church of England cathedral and seat of the Bishop of London. Its dedication to Paul the Apostle dates back to the original church on this site, founded in AD 604. St Paul's sits at the top of Ludgate Hill, the highest point in the City of London, and is the mother...
) when it was completed. The building's use by the Ministry of Information during the Second World War
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
inspired George Orwell
George Orwell
Eric Arthur Blair , better known by his pen name George Orwell, was an English author and journalist...
's description of the Ministry of Truth
Ministry of Truth
The Ministry of Truth is one of the four ministries that govern Oceania in George Orwell's novel Nineteen Eighty-Four...
in his novel Nineteen Eighty-Four
Nineteen Eighty-Four
Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell is a dystopian novel about Oceania, a society ruled by the oligarchical dictatorship of the Party...
.
History
After the First World War the University of London, then based at the Imperial Institute in KensingtonKensington
Kensington is a district of west and central London, England within the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. An affluent and densely-populated area, its commercial heart is Kensington High Street, and it contains the well-known museum district of South Kensington.To the north, Kensington is...
was in urgent need of new office and teaching space to allow for its growth and expansion. In 1921, the government bought 11 acres (4.5 ha) of land in Bloomsbury
Bloomsbury
-Places:* Bloomsbury is an area in central London.* Bloomsbury , related local government unit* Bloomsbury, New Jersey, New Jersey, USA* Bloomsbury , listed on the NRHP in Maryland...
from the Duke of Bedford
Herbrand Russell, 11th Duke of Bedford
Herbrand Arthur Russell, 11th Duke of Bedford KG KBE DL LLD FRS FSA was the son of Francis Russell, 9th Duke of Bedford.-Family:...
to provide a new site for the University. However, many within the university were opposed to a move, and, in 1926, the Duke bought back the land. The election of William Beveridge
William Beveridge
William Henry Beveridge, 1st Baron Beveridge KCB was a British economist and social reformer. He is best known for his 1942 report Social Insurance and Allied Services which served as the basis for the post-World War II welfare state put in place by the Labour government elected in 1945.Lord...
however to the post of Vice-Chancellor of the University in June 1926 was highly significant as Beveridge supported a move to Bloomsbury. Beveridge persuaded the Rockefeller Foundation
Rockefeller Foundation
The Rockefeller Foundation is a prominent philanthropic organization and private foundation based at 420 Fifth Avenue, New York City. The preeminent institution established by the six-generation Rockefeller family, it was founded by John D. Rockefeller , along with his son John D. Rockefeller, Jr...
to donate £400,000 to the University and the original site was reacquired in 1927.
The grand art deco
Art Deco
Art deco , or deco, is an eclectic artistic and design style that began in Paris in the 1920s and flourished internationally throughout the 1930s, into the World War II era. The style influenced all areas of design, including architecture and interior design, industrial design, fashion and...
design was the work of Charles Holden
Charles Holden
Charles Henry Holden, Litt. D., FRIBA, MRTPI, RDI was a Bolton-born English architect best known for designing many London Underground stations during the 1920s and 1930s, for Bristol Central Library, the Underground Electric Railways Company of London's headquarters at 55 Broadway and for the...
, who was appointed as architect in March 1931 from a short list which also included Giles Gilbert Scott
Giles Gilbert Scott
Sir Giles Gilbert Scott, OM, FRIBA was an English architect known for his work on such buildings as Liverpool Cathedral and Battersea Power Station and designing the iconic red telephone box....
, Percy Scott Worthington and Arnold Dunbar Smith. In making their choice, Beveridge and the Principal, Edwin Deller, were influenced by the success of Holden's recently completed 55 Broadway
55 Broadway
55 Broadway is a notable building overlooking St. James's Park in London. It was designed by Charles Holden and built between 1927 and 1929, and in 1931 the building earned him the RIBA London Architecture Medal...
, designed as the headquarters for the London Electric Railway
Underground Electric Railways Company of London
The Underground Electric Railways Company of London Limited , known operationally as The Underground for much of its existence, was established in 1902. It was the holding company for the three deep-level "tube"A "tube" railway is an underground railway constructed in a circular tunnel by the use...
and then the tallest office building in London.
Holden's original plan for the university building was for a single structure covering the whole site, stretching almost 1200 feet (365.8 m) from Montague Place to Torrington Street. It comprised a central spine linked by a series of wings to the perimeter façade and enclosing a series of courtyards. The scheme was to be topped by two towers; the taller Senate House and a smaller one to the north. The design featured elevations of load-bearing brick work faced with Portland stone
Portland stone
Portland stone is a limestone from the Tithonian stage of the Jurassic period quarried on the Isle of Portland, Dorset. The quarries consist of beds of white-grey limestone separated by chert beds. It has been used extensively as a building stone throughout the British Isles, notably in major...
. Construction began in 1932 and was undertaken by Holland, Hannen & Cubitts
Holland, Hannen & Cubitts
Holland, Hannen & Cubitts was a major building firm responsible for many of the great buildings of London.-History:It was formed from the fusion of two well-established building houses that had competed throughout the later decades of the nineteenth century but came together in 1883: this was...
. King George V
George V of the United Kingdom
George V was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Emperor of India, from 6 May 1910 through the First World War until his death in 1936....
laid the ceremonial foundation stone on 26 June 1933. Due to a lack of funds, the full design was gradually cut back, and only the Senate House and Library were completed in 1937, although the external flanking wings of the north-eastern courtyard were not constructed. As he had with his earlier buildings, Holden also prepared the designs for the individual elements of the interior design
Interior design
Interior design describes a group of various yet related projects that involve turning an interior space into an effective setting for the range of human activities are to take place there. An interior designer is someone who conducts such projects...
. The completion of the buildings for the Institute of Education and the School of Oriental Studies followed, but the onset of the Second World War prevented any further progress on the full scheme.
Critical opinion
Steen Eiler Rasmussen
Steen Eiler Rasmussen was a Danish architect and urban planner who was a professor at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, and a prolific writer of books and poetry...
, a friend of Holden, commented that, with the expansive design, "the London University is swallowing more and more of the old houses, and this quarter – which the Duke of Bedford laid out for good domestic houses – has taken on quite a different character." Evelyn Waugh
Evelyn Waugh
Arthur Evelyn St. John Waugh , known as Evelyn Waugh, was an English writer of novels, travel books and biographies. He was also a prolific journalist and reviewer...
, in Put Out More Flags
Put Out More Flags
Put Out More Flags, the sixth novel by Evelyn Waugh, was first published by Chapman and Hall in 1942. The novel is set during the first year of the Second World War, and follows the wartime activities of characters introduced in Waugh's earlier satirical novels Decline and Fall, Vile Bodies and...
, describes it as "the vast bulk of London University insulting the autumnal sky."
Positive comments came from functionalist
Functionalism (architecture)
Functionalism, in architecture, is the principle that architects should design a building based on the purpose of that building. This statement is less self-evident than it first appears, and is a matter of confusion and controversy within the profession, particularly in regard to modern...
architect Erich Mendelsohn
Erich Mendelsohn
Erich Mendelsohn was a Jewish German architect, known for his expressionist architecture in the 1920s, as well as for developing a dynamic functionalism in his projects for department stores and cinemas.-Early life:...
in 1938, who wrote to Holden that he was "very much taken and am convinced that there is no finer building in London." Architectural historian Arnold Whittick described the building as a "static massive pyramid ... obviously designed to last for a thousand years", but thought "the interior is more pleasing than the exterior. There is essentially the atmosphere of dignity, serenity and repose that one associates with the architecture of ancient Greece." Nikolaus Pevsner
Nikolaus Pevsner
Sir Nikolaus Bernhard Leon Pevsner, CBE, FBA was a German-born British scholar of history of art and, especially, of history of architecture...
was less enthusiastic. He described its style as "strangely semi-traditional, undecided modernism" and summarised the result: "The design certainly does not possess the vigour and directness of Charles Holden's smaller Underground stations." Others have described it as Stalinist
Stalinism
Stalinism refers to the ideology that Joseph Stalin conceived and implemented in the Soviet Union, and is generally considered a branch of Marxist–Leninist ideology but considered by some historians to be a significant deviation from this philosophy...
, or as totalitarian
Totalitarianism
Totalitarianism is a political system where the state recognizes no limits to its authority and strives to regulate every aspect of public and private life wherever feasible...
due to its great scale.
Holden recognised that his architectural style place himself in "rather a curious position, not quite in the fashion and not quite out of it; not enough of a traditionalist to please the traditionalists and not enough of a modernist to please the modernists."
At the outbreak of the Second World War, Senate House became home to the Ministry of Information and it is considered that it inspired the Ministry of Truth
Ministry of Truth
The Ministry of Truth is one of the four ministries that govern Oceania in George Orwell's novel Nineteen Eighty-Four...
in George Orwell
George Orwell
Eric Arthur Blair , better known by his pen name George Orwell, was an English author and journalist...
's Nineteen Eighty-Four
Nineteen Eighty-Four
Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell is a dystopian novel about Oceania, a society ruled by the oligarchical dictatorship of the Party...
– Orwell's wife worked in the building for the censorship department of the ministry.
Present day
Senate House remains a prominent landmark throughout Bloomsbury and is visible from some distance away. The building was listed as Grade II* in 1969, and continues to be home to the Vice-Chancellor of the University of London and is the home of the University library having recently undergone a refurbishment to bring it up to modern standards and to reinstate some of Holden's original interiors.Some schools in constituent colleges, such as the Birkbeck
Birkbeck
-People:*Elena Birkbeck , first wife of William Knox D'Arcy, mining entrepreneur*George Birkbeck , a doctor, academic, philanthropist and pioneer in adult education, founder of Birkbeck, University of London....
School of Computer Science and Information Systems (until 2010) , and the School of Advanced Study
School of Advanced Study
The School of Advanced Study, a postgraduate institution of the University of London, is the UK's national centre for the promotion and facilitation of research in the humanities and social sciences...
(the UK's national centre for the facilitation and promotion of research in the humanities and social sciences) are or were based in Senate House.
The main entrance is from Malet Street
Malet Street
Malet Street is a street in Bloomsbury, in the London Borough of Camden, central London, England. It runs between Torrington Place and the British Museum, parallel to Gower Street and Tottenham Court Road...
to the west and the rear entrance from Russell Square
Russell Square
Russell Square is a large garden square in Bloomsbury, in the London Borough of Camden. It is near the University of London's main buildings and the British Museum. To the north is Woburn Place and to the south-east is Southampton Row...
to the east.
Senate House Library
The library
Library
In a traditional sense, a library is a large collection of books, and can refer to the place in which the collection is housed. Today, the term can refer to any collection, including digital sources, resources, and services...
is administered by the central university as part the Senate House Libraries and in 2005 had over 32,000 registered users. The library holds around three million volumes, including 120,000 volumes printed before 1851. The Library started with the foundation of the University of London in 1836, but began to develop from 1871 when a book fund was started.
Along with a subscription to over 5,200 Journals, other resources include the Goldsmiths' Library of Economic Literature, and the Palaeography
Palaeography
Palaeography, also spelt paleography is the study of ancient writing. Included in the discipline is the practice of deciphering, reading, and dating historical manuscripts, and the cultural context of writing, including the methods with which writing and books were produced, and the history of...
room's collection of western European manuscript
Manuscript
A manuscript or handwrite is written information that has been manually created by someone or some people, such as a hand-written letter, as opposed to being printed or reproduced some other way...
s. The library also holds over 170,000 theses by graduate students. From 2006 onwards, the library has been undergoing a comprehensive refurbishment process.
The Library is also home to the University of London archives, which include the central archive of the University itself and many other collections, including the papers of philanthropist Charles Booth
Charles Booth (philanthropist)
Charles Booth was an English philanthropist and social researcher. He is most famed for his innovative work on documenting working class life in London at the end of the 19th century, work that along with that of Benjamin Seebohm Rowntree influenced government intervention against poverty in the...
, philosopher Herbert Spencer
Herbert Spencer
Herbert Spencer was an English philosopher, biologist, sociologist, and prominent classical liberal political theorist of the Victorian era....
, actress and mystic Florence Farr
Florence Farr
Florence Beatrice Emery Farr was a British West End leading actress, composer and director. She was also a women's rights activist, journalist, educator, singer, novelist, leader of the occult order, The Golden Dawn and one time mistress of playwright George Bernard Shaw...
, author and artist Thomas Sturge Moore
Thomas Sturge Moore
Thomas Sturge Moore was an English poet, author and artist. He was born on 4 March 1870 and was educated at Dulwich College, the Croydon Art School and Lambeth Art School. He was a long-term friend and correspondent of W. B. Yeats...
, writer Opal Whiteley
Opal Whiteley
Opal Whiteley was an American nature writer and diarist whose childhood journal was first published in 1920 as The Story of Opal in serialized form in the Atlantic Monthly, then later that same year as a book with the title The Story of Opal: The Journal of an Understanding Heart.Whiteley's true...
, and publishing company Gerald Duckworth and Company Ltd
Gerald Duckworth and Company Ltd
-History:Founded in 1898 by Gerald Duckworth, Duckworth is an independent British publisher. It was important in the development of English literature in the first half of the twentieth century, being the publisher of figures such as Virginia Woolf , W. H. Davies, Anthony Powell, John Galsworthy...
.
In popular culture
Richard III (1995 film)
Richard III is a 1995 drama film adapted from William Shakespeare's play of the same name, starring Ian McKellen, Annette Bening, Jim Broadbent, Robert Downey Jr., Nigel Hawthorne, Kristin Scott Thomas, Maggie Smith, John Wood and Dominic West....
(Interior of Richard's Headquarters), Nineteen Eighty-Four
Nineteen Eighty-Four (film)
Nineteen Eighty-Four is a 1984 British science fiction film, based upon George Orwell's novel of the same name, following the life of Winston Smith in Oceania, a country run by a totalitarian government...
(the Ministry of Truth), Blue Ice
Blue Ice (film)
Blue Ice is a 1992 film directed by Russell Mulcahy and stars Michael Caine and Sean Young. It is a crime thriller involving a former spy , who is presently a jazz-club owner, who becomes immersed again in the world of espionage and counter-intelligence.Caine plays Harry Anders, who according to...
(a hotel), Spy Game
Spy Game
Spy Game is a 2001 American spy film directed by Tony Scott and starring Robert Redford and Brad Pitt. The film grossed $62,362,785 in the United States and $143,049,560 worldwide.-Plot:...
(lobby of CIA Headquarters) , Batman Begins
Batman Begins
Batman Begins is a 2005 American superhero action film based on the fictional DC Comics character Batman, directed by Christopher Nolan. It stars Christian Bale as Batman, along with Michael Caine, Gary Oldman, Liam Neeson, Katie Holmes, Cillian Murphy, Morgan Freeman, Ken Watanabe, Tom Wilkinson,...
(Lobby of a Court).
For television, the building has featured in Jeeves and Wooster
Jeeves and Wooster
-External links:*—An episode guide to the series, including information about which episodes were adapted from which Wodehouse stories.*—Episode guides, screenshots and quotes from the four series....
(the exterior of Wooster's Manhattan apartment building), Dr Who and The Day of the Triffids amongst other programmes.
