King's College London
King's was chartered in 1829 with the backing of the Church of England and the Duke of Wellington — a direct riposte to the secular college up the road. The rivalry has softened into ritual, but the Strand site remains one of the most gracefully situated campuses in England, strung between Somerset House and the river, with the Courtauld Gallery and St Mary-le-Strand as near neighbours.
Its medical lineage is older than the college itself: students have trained at Guy's since the 1820s and at St Thomas' since the sixteenth century. Florence Nightingale established the world's first professional school of nursing at St Thomas' in 1860, and the John Keats who trained at Guy's was a licensed apothecary before he was a published poet. The Maughan Library, in a former Public Record Office on Chancery Lane, retains one of London's great round reading rooms.
Field notes
- The chapel carol service is balloted — demand exceeds the pews.
- John Keats qualified as an apothecary at Guy's in 1816, five years before 'Ode on a Nightingale'.
- The Maughan Library's round reading room inspired the film version of the British Museum's dome; the records it once held included the Domesday Book.
Notable connections
In brief — from the field guide
Chartered as the established church's answer to godless Gower Street. The Strand campus faces Somerset House across the world's most learned street; its medical schools descend from Guy's and St Thomas' hospitals.
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