The Buildings
The two maps here show the campus as it was in 1937 - before any of us were around to experience what it was really like - and again in 2021 when most of us who visit are horrified by the loss of all the open spaces, shrubberies and trees which used o abound when were all students, This is an area of the site that seems to have gone from being a minor element to becoming quite a large part of the site. You can thank Covid, lock-downs and social isolation for that!!
The Buildings section will try to show how the campus has developed over the years to get from what it was like in 1937 to what it is now. Most of the land (and the buildings on them when we were students) to the north of the A30 seems to have come under college control between 1937 and 1965. When a student I had no reason to venture into any of the buildings on that side of the road but had always assumed there were a number of detached houses that housed some of the more 'arts' subjects. I had no idea just how much land was associated with each of the houses nor that it gave the college control of most of that side of the A30 - all of it except one pub (where students were never welcome. Several of the buildings have been demolished and the land used to build a lot more. If anyone has any pictures that can use to show the buildings (I have made some guesses based on photos on the website) then please highlight them.
Anyway this section will now list every building on the campus or that is part of the College within the Englefield Green area. Given the growth in the college that has become a very large number. The main focus of this section though is what was there when we arrived until we left. For this reason I have broken it down into six categories:
Some of the buildings will undoubtedly be assigned to the wrong category, so when you spot the errors please let me know. Better still let me know as much as you can about the building so it can be added to the information available to others.
Inevitably some of the buildings will have changed use during the period (or since) so let me know what you know as well, just add some comments below the relevant article.
The image above tries to show how the campus has changed as it has grown and the following sub-categories will show the stages it went through to get to where it is now.
Subcategories
Buildings: Pre1965
These are the buildings that were part of the college before 1965. Not all of them were for student or academic use and I may not have the details correct - please provide any additional information you may have.
The College map from 1937 only covers the main campus. At that stage the buildings in use were Founders itself, the Bungalow (which housed the College Secretary by then) which had been built to accommodate the architect while Founders was being built, the Physics and Botany Laboratories (in what became called the Horton Building), the Chemistry Laboratory (in what became called the Moore Laboratory), the Swimming Pool, the Boiler Room and the Lodges at the main and second gates (this one is referred to as The Gardeners Lodge).
By 1965, a number of buildings on the other side of the A30 had been acquired and the Williams Laboratory had been built. Williams was built after the end of World War 2 as a temporary building and has outlasted, Williamson (the first), Athlone and Cameron illustrating that the practice of Chemistry is far less destructive to the fabric of a building than housing undergraduates ever was!
You can see larger views of these plans by clicking on the magnifying glass.
Buildings: 1965-'69
This section covers the buildings that came into service during the late '60s. If you look at the campus guide for 1965 you will note that the were very few changes on the main campus (though the Crossland Bungalow changed its use from housing the College secretary to becoming a
location where students could meet - the first student's union to be available at the college. The major growth in the number of buildings was the acquisition of several large houses and estates, most just across the road on the North of the A30 and others a little further afield, namely Kingswood to house the male undergraduates and Alderhurst to house the Zoology Laboratory. Each came with a substantial amount of land.
What is particularly interesting is that it shows the boundaries of the various properties and in most cases the very substantial amount of land that came with each property; it is this that enabled the extent of the growth of buildings (particularly for student halls of residence) since then.So by 1965 the college controlled most of the land on the other side of the A30 from the campus other than what was a pub (where students were not exactly welcome).
Most of these buildings were available for use by 1965 but a few were built / acquired / extended between 1965 and 1970. What had been 'The Bungalow' was extended to become the Student's Union building and a new 'pre-fab' was put up in front of the Williams Laboratory to cater for the creation of a computer science course; Elm Lodge was acquired to help house the additional male students.
Union Building
For such a small building "the Union" achieved a lot. The sticky floors will be an abiding memory along with the pinball machine, the tabletop football, the sandwich bar and the main bar. The piles of (plastic) glasses on the table, the booths and the drinking games.
Whether you spent time in the buidling every day, visited it only for an event or rarely ever set foot in it how do you perceive it now and what did it mean to you at the time?
Buildings : 1970-'74
This section includes the buildings in use during the first half of the 70s.
The major change at the beginning of this period was the opening of Athlone & Cameron as new halls of residence effectively opening up a part of the campus that had previously been pasture and woodland. I had never realised that these two halls only came into service the year I arrived, my assumption was that they'd been there for a few years before then. Two new lecture rooms were opened, a pre-fab building just off Founders Square and close to the Student Union building. I think Highfield ceased being used primarily for staff accommodation and became a hall for married students - but I know very little about it.
The Bourne Laboratory opened for Chemistry students and the older Moore and Williams buildings became the base for Biochemistry. A new Computer Building was put up and the building started on the Tolansky building. Williamson Hall was opened in 1973 as a mixed hall.
Buildings: 1975-'79
This section is for the buildings that came into use between 1975 and 1979. The only major new building was 'The Arts Centre' which strangely never bore the name of one of the old professors or alumni. It was after my time so I will depend on others to provide some information on what it was like. The other buildings in this section are not new buildings but I can find no record of them being used until the latter part of the 70s. I have no pictures of several of these buildings am guessing at their precise location - I'm sure someone will be able to add some comments or background information.
As with so much of the material in this section there may well be a great deal of "fake information" included. This is not intentional and I'm hoping that someone who knows better than I will be able to provide more accurate information. If you have photos of any of the buildings or recognise the buildings from photos already on the site, please let me know - either by adding to the comments section or, better still, writing a replacement article that can be used to replace my drivel.
The campus plan here is from 1980.
Buildings: 1980 - '84
This section should cover the buildings that came into use between 1980 and 1984. In fact several of the buildings were not bought into service until after 1985 but would have been major building projects while some of you were still students. It was the period running up to the merger with Bedford College and whilst the number of new buildings was not exceptional, the size of them was significant - the McCrea and Queen's buildings are both huge - see some of the aerial pictures in the building descriptions to get an idea.
The construction of the Queens building also marked the start of building on the green space outside Williamson where horses had been free to roam a decade earlier.
The cropped image does not show the off-campus buildings nor the index for the numbers. The other image is not cropped. You can see a larger version of each by clicking on the magnifying glass in the lower right hand corner.
Buildings: Post 1984
This category is to show all the building work that has taken place since we all left the College. The map shows the campus as it was in 2021.
The colour-coding of the buildings shows the primary use of each - blue for halls of residence, yellow for academic and pink for social. To the north of the A30 the amount of academic space has not changed dramatically since we were students but the growth in accommodation has been quite staggering to cater with the change from 1,000 students to 10,000 students. There has also been significant growth in halls in the old Athlone / Cameron area.
In the section below the academic buildings are covered first, then the Social buildings with halls of residence last. These days it is probably easier to think of the Campus as covering both sides of the road with the A30 through the middle of it!
I am also considering creating a subsection of this category to show all the buildings that have been demolished to create some of the space for these new buildings. I have actually found doing all this quite a depressing activity as I realise just how much of the splendour of the campus has been lost. There is inevitably more development to come but I think some of that will be down towards Nobles Field and on the opposite side of the railway track down there.
If you look carefully you will see a small magnifying glass in the bottom right corner that will provide a larger picture of the map or, if you want a ridiculously large PDF version you can click here to download it.