Thom, Colin and Spencer, Amy (Eds).
(2026)
University College London: The Bloomsbury Campus.
[Book].
Survey of London.
UCL Press: London, UK.
(In press).
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Abstract
The first university in London, and the first in England to accept people of all faiths and creeds, University College London occupies a prestigious position in the history of British education. Since its foundation in 1826 and the construction shortly afterwards of its iconic neoclassical building in Gower Street, UCL has been an increasingly influential presence in the capital’s Bloomsbury district, shaping the character of its built environment and acting as a magnet for other academic institutions. Over two hundred years UCL has expanded to form an extensive campus, its sprawling footprint and varied building stock reflecting growth in student numbers and advances in education, technology and culture. Having been part of UCL’s Bartlett School of Architecture since 2013, the Survey of London is uniquely placed to offer the first comprehensive account of the university’s buildings and the evolution of its historic Bloomsbury campus. This monograph, published in 2026 to coincide with the bicentenary of UCL’s foundation, provides a new understanding of this significant estate in central London, bringing to light a complex and engaging architectural story with many facets that have been previously overlooked or neglected. It charts a progression in UCL’s architecture from the Greek Revival classicism of the early nineteenth century, through Victorian experimentation and inter-war Neo-Georgian, to post-war Brutalism and today to the high-tech, energy efficient and adaptable buildings expected of a modern university. Based on original documentary research and site investigation, and generously illustrated with more than 270 photographs, maps and drawings, many of them specially commissioned, the Survey’s monograph provides a valuable record and analysis of UCL’s Bloomsbury campus for the future.
| Type: | Book |
|---|---|
| Title: | University College London: The Bloomsbury Campus |
| ISBN-13: | 9781806550784 |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.14324/111.9781806550784 |
| Publisher version: | https://doi.org/10.14324/111.9781806550784 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | Collection © Editors, 2026 Text © Contributors, 2026 Any third-party material in this book is not covered by the book’s Creative Commons licence. Details of the copyright ownership and permitted use of third-party material is given in the image (or extract) credit lines. Every effort has been made to identify and contact copyright holders and any omission or error will be corrected if notification is made to the publisher. If you would like to reuse any third-party material not covered by the book’s Creative Commons licence, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright owner. This book is published under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International licence (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0), https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0. This licence allows you to share, copy, distribute and transmit the work for personal and non-commercial use provided author and publisher attribution is clearly stated. Attribution should include the following information: Spencer, A. and Thom, C. (eds). 2026. University College London: The Bloomsbury Campus. London: UCL Press. https://doi.org/10.14324/111.9781806550784 Further details about Creative Commons licences are available at https://creativecommons.org/licenses |
| Keywords: | University College London, Bloomsbury, architecture, university buildings, Gower street |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of the Built Environment > The Bartlett School of Architecture |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10220500 |
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