Royal Holloway, University of London
Royal Holloway is really two colleges with one name. Bedford College, founded in 1849 by Elizabeth Jesser Reid, was among the first institutions in Britain to educate women to degree standard; Royal Holloway College, endowed in 1879 by the pill-millionaire Thomas Holloway and opened by Queen Victoria, was its mirror for lady students in the countryside. The two merged in 1985 and moved to Egham.
The Founder's Building — modelled on the Château de Chambord and, in old railway posters, the most photographed building in England — now holds the Picture Gallery, a collected sweep of Victorian painting that includes works by Frith and Millais. Its quadrangles keep the ritual of an Oxbridge college twenty miles upriver from the city the railway connected them to.
Field notes
- The Founders' Building is Chambord's twin — Holloway wanted a palace that would 'do for women what the great colleges did for men.'
- The on-site Picture Gallery hangs Frith's 'The Railway Station' beside Millais and Landseer.
- Bedford College's old Regent's Park campus now houses Regent's University — see this guide's entry.
Notable connections
In brief — from the field guide
Founded on twin pillars: Bedford College (1849), among the first higher education institutions for women in Britain, and Thomas Holloway's Royal Holloway (1879). The Founder's Building is a vast Victorian echo of Chambord set in Surrey parkland.
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