Queen Mary University of London

Queen  Mary  University  of  London

Queen Mary University of London officially abbreviated to , informally known as QM is a public research university in London, England, which is a constituent college of the University of London. It dates back to the London Hospital Medical College founded in 1785. Queen Mary College was admitted to the University of 

London in 1915 and named after Mary of , Queen of the United Kingdom. In 1989, Queen Mary College merged with College to form Queen Mary and College. In 1995, Queen Mary and College merged with St Bartholomew's Hospital Medical College, established in 1843, and the London Hospital Medical College, founded in 1785.

Queen Mary's main campus is in the Mile End area of East London, with other campuses in , and . It has around 17,000 full-time students and 4,000 staff.

 Queen Mary is organised into three faculties – the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, the Faculty of Science and Engineering and and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry within which there are 21 academic departments and institutes. It is one of the largest colleges of the University of London.

Queen Mary is a member of the Russell Group of leading British research universities, the Association of Commonwealth Universities and Universities UK. Queen Mary is a major for medical teaching and research and is part of Partners, the world's largest academic health science . 

It has a strategic partnership with the University of Warwick, including research collaboration and joint teaching of English, history and computer science undergraduates. Queen Mary also collaborates with Royal Holloway, University of London to run 

at the University of London Institute in Paris.

Queen Mary is frequently ranked among the top universities in the 

UK, Europe and is among the top 100 universities in the world. It was recently ranked among the top five universities in London.There are six Nobel Laureates Queen Mary's alumni and current and former staff.

Teaching of aeronautical engineering began in 1907 which led to the first UK aeronautical engineering department being established in 1909 which boasted a ground-breaking wind tunnel. Thus creating the oldest Aeronautical in the World.

 A. P. , a former student at the College gaining a first class degree in Mechanical and Electrical Engineering in 1906, was encouraged and financially supported by P. Y. Alexander, a wealthy aeronautical enthusiast and


In 1910 the College's status in the University of London was extended for a further five years, with unlimited membership achieved in May 1915. During this period the organisation of the governors of the People's Palace was rearranged, creating the separate People's Palace Committee and East London College 


acquaintance, and J. L. , the then Principal, to start regular courses of lectures in aeronautics.gradually brought in more and more skilled aeronautical engineers, and with the newly built laboratory, started giving lectures in aeronautics "Flying machines", "Balloons, airships and kites", "The mechanical principles of flight"


 and started extensive research on fundamental matters such as the characteristics of wing sections and propellers, structural and material characteristics, and the forces on struts, leading to use in military aircraft for the First World War.


During the First World War the College admitted students from the London Hospital Medical College who were preparing for the preliminary medical examination, the first step in a long process that would eventually bring the two institutions together. After the war, the College grew, albeit constrained by the rest of the 


Committee, both under the Palace Governors, as a sign of the growing separation of the two concepts within a single complex.

People's Palace to the west and a burial ground immediately to the east. In 1920 it obtained both the Palace's Rotunda


the Charity Commissioners and the Board of Education. In April 1929 the College Council decided it would take the steps towards applying to the Privy Council for a Royal Charter, but on the advice of the Drapers' 

and rooms under the winter gardens at the west of the palace, which became chemical laboratories. The College's status was also unique, being the only School of the University of London that was subject to both 

In the early hours of 25 February 1931 a fire destroyed the Queen's Hall, though both the College and the winter gardens escaped. In the coming days discussions on reconstruction led to the proposal that the entire site be transferred to the College which would then apply for a Charter alone. The Drapers' Company 

Company first devised a scheme for development and expansion, which recommended other things to the People's Palace and the College, with guaranteed provision of the Queen's Hall for recreational purposes, offering at least freedom of governance if not in space.


for a name change, feeling that "east London" carried unfortunate associations that would hinder the College and its graduates. With the initial proposed name, "Queen's College", having already been taken by another institution and "Victoria College" felt to be unoriginal, "Queen Mary 

" was settled on. The Charter of Incorporation was presented on 12 December 1934 by Queen Mary herself

obtained St Helen's Terrace, a row of six houses the site, and in July 1931 it was agreed to give these over to the People's Palace for a new site adjacent to the old, which would now become entirely the domain of the College. Separation was now achieved. The Charter was now pursued, but the Academic Board asked 


During the Second World War the College was evacuated to Cambridge, where it shared with King's College. Meanwhile, the Mile End site was requisitioned for war work and was for a time used as the Municipal Offices of Borough Council. After the war the College returned to London, facing many of the same problems but with prospects for westward expansion.

The East End had suffered considerable bomb damage although the College itself had incurred consequently several areas of land near to the College site now became vacant. The former church of St ' to the immediate east of the College was now defunct and was demolished in 1950, with the space used to 

build a new block for physics, but most of the acquisitions in the immediate post war years were to the west of the college. Even the new People's Palace was no longer able to meet its needs and it was acquired by the College along with several pieces of land that together formed a significant continuous stretch along the Mile 

End Road. New buildings for engineering, biology and chemistry were built on the new sites, whilst the arts took over the space vacated in the original building, now renamed the Queens' Building to reflect the support and patronage of both Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother.

Limited accommodation resulted in the acquisition of further land in South now directly connected to Mile End tube station by means of the Central line's eastward extension

upon which tower blocks were established. Consequently, student numbers continued to expand. The College also obtained the Co-operative Wholesale Society's clothing factory on the Mile End Road which was converted into a building for the Faculty of Laws and some other teaching), as well as the former headquarters of 

Patent Ltd operators of the "largest dog biscuit factory in the was converted into a building for the Faculty of Economics founded by Maurice , Baron . Both faculties were physically separated from what was now a campus to the west.


Hospital Medical College and St Bartholomew's Hospital Medical College with a joint facility in Mile End, but the land was not yet available. Over the period land that came onto the market was purchased with the intention to consolidate as soon as possible. The Queen Mary College Act 1973 was passed "to the disposal of the 


From the mid-until the mid-the College was in a period of uncertainty and flux. Much planning was dominated by the "scheme" which proposed to link Queen Mary College with the London 

A further link with both The London and St. Bartholomew's was made in 1974 when an anonymous donor provided for the establishment of a further hall of residence in , to be divided equally between Queen Mary College students and the two medical colleges.

burial ground in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets and to for other purposes thereof..." and gave the authority to disinter and most of the graves to . 


At the start of the changing demographics and finances caused much concern through the university sector and led to a of the University of London. At Queen Mary some subjects, such as Russian and Classics were discontinued, whilst the College 

became one of five in the University with a concentration of laboratory sciences, including the transfer of science departments from College, Chelsea College, Queen Elizabeth College and College.

 to this day but the rest of the area has been absorbed by the College's expansion. The long planned Clinical Medicine building for the Scheme finally in the late , further strengthening the ties between the three colleges

From the mid-the College began expanding across the newly acquired land to the east, taking the campus to the Regent's Canal. A part of the burial ground remains