Exhibitions

The Senate House, from Malet Street, with the tower under construction. The tower, for Library collections, is 210 feet high and at the time was called "London 's first skyscraper" by the press. The entire structure was completed on Friday 10 September 1937, with the laying of the last two stones in the coping.

Senate House Library
from Burlington Gardens to Senate House

1 September - 23 December 2003

A display of material from the University of London Archives illustrating the history of Senate House Library from Burlington Gardens to Senate House. 

Overview

The University of London was founded by Royal Charter in November 1836. In 1871 it was proposed that the University should create a library. The origins of the Library lie in the donation of £1,000 made by the politician Sir Julian Goldsmid in order to establish a first-class University library, and in the gift by Lord Overstone of the library of UCL Professor of Mathematics Augustus De Morgan, featuring a valuable collection of mathematical works. George Grote, Vice-Chancellor of the University from 1862 until 1871, bequeathed his collection of works on classics and ancient history. These collections helped to form the nucleus of the Library.

In 1877, the Library was opened in the University's purpose-built premises in Burlington Gardens. The building is currently occupied by the British Museum, which will vacate the premises after 2004 in favour of the Royal Academy. In 1900, the University was reconstituted and the University, including the Library, moved from Burlington Gardens to the Imperial Institute building in South Kensington. The Imperial Institute had been built to house a permanent exhibition on the British Empire and provided much larger accommodation for the University. The Library was formally re-opened by the Chancellor, the Earl of Rosebery, in 1906. Of the Imperial Institute building, only the Collcutt Tower, re-named the Queen's Tower, remains, the remainder having been demolished in 1963.

Rapid expansion of the Library collections had followed since its creation in 1877, through both gifts and purchases, culminating in the gift of the Goldsmiths' Library of Economic Literature by the Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths in 1903. Charles Holden (1875-1960) was the architect chosen by the University of London in 1931 for its new buildings on the Bloomsbury site. The Library was moved to Bloomsbury in 1937 and the move of the collections was completed in October 1938. The Library's core mission since its inception has been as a central research library, broadly across the wider arts, humanities and social sciences. The mission statement reflects this: supporting scholarship and innovation to advance research in the University of London, regionally and worldwide.

For further information on the history of the University of London, and Senate House Library, see Negley Harte, The University of London 1836-1986 (London: Athlone, 1986). This was published to mark the 150th anniversary of the award of the Royal Charter.