Work on the McCrea Building started in the early 80's but it was not bought into full service until 1986. It housed the Computer Science, Mathematics and History departments. It was built between the Arts building and the Horton building. It is huge - you need to see the aerial picture to fully appreciate its size. The picture here, taken from the steps of the Horton building shows one of the wings of the three wing building
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.
The Queen's Building was completed in 1985 and became the home for the Geography and Geology departments. It was built on what had been one of the football fields in the large open space near Williamson and Athlone. It was another huge building and the size and scale only become apparent from the aerial picture.
Penrose Court was built as an estate of accommodation blocks to house the increasing number of students coming to Royal Holloway. Work began in 1983 to build Penrose Court on land previously part of the Highfield Estate and covering much of the land that had formed part of the Highfield Estate. The development consisted of self-catering houses and flats for 200+ students with each of the units housing between four and six single accommodation rooms with shared bathrooms and kitchens.
Another building started while some of us were still student's but not completed until 1986. The Wilson Laboratory is linked and connected to the Tolansky building and forms part of the Physics Department. In the additional information you can see its location on the map and an aerial view of the Wilson and Tolansky laboratories.