Bedford College was in York Place after 1874 Bedford College was founded in London in 1849 as the first

higher education Higher education is tertiary education leading to award of an academic degree. Higher education, also called post-secondary education, third-level or tertiary education, is an optional final stage of formal learning that occurs after comple ...

college for

women A woman is an adult female human. Prior to adulthood, a female human is referred to as a girl (a female child or adolescent). The plural ''women'' is sometimes used in certain phrases such as "women's rights" to denote female humans regardl ...

in the United Kingdom. In 1900, it became a constituent of the

University of London The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in post-nominals) is a federal public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The university was established by royal charter in 1836 as a degree ...

. Having played a leading role in the advancement of women in higher education and public life in general, it became fully coeducational (i.e. open to men) in the 1960s. In 1985, Bedford College merged with

Royal Holloway College Royal Holloway, University of London (RHUL), formally incorporated as Royal Holloway and Bedford New College, is a public research university and a constituent college of the federal University of London. It has six schools, 21 academic departm ...

, another constituent of the University of London, to form Royal Holloway and Bedford New College. This remains the official name, but it is commonly called Royal Holloway, University of London (RHUL).

History

Foundation

The college was founded by Elizabeth Jesser Reid (''née'' Sturch) in 1849, a social reformer and anti-slavery activist, who had been left a private income by her late husband, Dr John Reid, which she used to patronise various philanthropic causes. Mrs Reid and her circle of well-educated friends believed firmly in the need to improve education for women. She leased a house at 47

Bedford Square Bedford Square is a garden square in the Bloomsbury district of the Borough of Camden in London, England. History Built between 1775 and 1783 as an upper middle class residential area, the square has had many distinguished residents, inclu ...

in the Bloomsbury area of London and opened the Ladies College in Bedford Square. The intention was to provide a liberal, non-sectarian education for women, something no other institution in the United Kingdom provided at the time. Reid placed £1,500 (

GBP Sterling (abbreviation: stg; Other spelling styles, such as STG and Stg, are also seen. ISO code: GBP) is the currency of the United Kingdom and nine of its associated territories. The pound ( sign: £) is the main unit of sterling, and t ...

) with three male

trustee Trustee (or the holding of a trusteeship) is a legal term which, in its broadest sense, is a synonym for anyone in a position of trust and so can refer to any individual who holds property, authority, or a position of trust or responsibility to ...

s and persuaded a number of her friends to serve on the management committees and act as teaching professors. In their first term they had 68 pupils. Initially the governance of the College was in the hands of the Ladies Committee (comprising some influential women) and the General Committee made up of the Ladies, the professors of the college and three trustees. It was the first British institution partly directed by women. The General Committee (later the Council) soon took over the running of the College, while the Ladies Committee directed the work of the Lady Visitors, who were responsible for the welfare and discipline of the students, and acted as their chaperones. Initially the professors were shocked by the generally low educational standards of the women entering the college, who in most cases had only home-based governess education. In response, Reid founded Bedford College School close to the college in 1853, in an attempt to provide a better standard of entrants. In 1860, the college expanded into 48 Bedford Square, which enabled it to become a residential establishment. "The Residence" was in the charge of a matron, who introduced the practice of students help to run the house and keep their own accounts.

Succession

Elizabeth Reid died in 1866 and left a trust fund and the leases of the college's buildings in the hands of three female trustees

Eliza Bostock Elizabeth Anne "Eliza" Bostock (1817 – 13 April 1898) was a British promoter of women's education. She became a trustee at Bedford College after attending lessons there herself. At the time Bedford College was one of the few places where women ...

, Jane Martineau and Eleanor Smith. The three of them were concerned that Bedford College School was to become Anglican under the head, Francis Martin. They closed the school although the idea went on without the trustees support as the Gower Street School being led, in time, by Lucy Harrison in 1875. The trustees insisted on a new constitution (as the college had no legal charter at the time). The Council was replaced by a Committee of Management and the college reconstituted as an Association under the Board of Trade and officially became known as Bedford College. In 1874, the Bedford Square lease expired and the college moved to 8 and 9 York Place, off Baker Street.

was still a trustee but many looked to her as honorary Principal and with her knowledge of building and architecture she organised the college's move to York place. The two houses, 8 and 9, acted as one, with the college using the downstairs rooms and the upstairs being the Residence. As numbers began to rise, the college expanded by adding extensions to house science laboratories. In the late 1870s, an entrance examination was introduced and a preparatory department set up for those who did not meet the standards required for college-level entry.

Women with degrees

In 1878, degree examinations of the University of London were opened to women. Bedford College students began gaining University of London

Bachelor of Arts Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four year ...

Bachelor of Science A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University o ...

and

Master's degree A master's degree (from Latin ) is an academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice.

s from the early 1880s. In 1900, when the University of London became a teaching university (where it had previously been only a degree-awarding body), Bedford College became one of its constituent colleges. It applied to the Privy Council for a

Royal Charter A royal charter is a formal grant issued by a monarch under royal prerogative as letters patent. Historically, they have been used to promulgate public laws, the most famous example being the English Magna Carta (great charter) of 1215, but s ...

to take the place of its Deed of Incorporation. Royal Assent for the new chartered body was received in 1909, and the College became officially recognised as Bedford College for Women. Continued growth led to a search for new premises, leading to the purchase of the lease on a site at

Regent's Park Regent's Park (officially The Regent's Park) is one of the Royal Parks of London. It occupies of high ground in north-west Inner London, administratively split between the City of Westminster and the Borough of Camden (and historically betwee ...

in 1908. A major fund-raising effort was undertaken to provide it with modern amenities. The purpose-built buildings were designed by the architect

Basil Champneys Basil Champneys (17 September 1842 – 5 April 1935) was an English architect and author whose most notable buildings include Manchester's John Rylands Library, Somerville College Library (Oxford), Newnham College, Cambridge, Lady Margaret Hal ...

and officially opened by Queen Mary in 1913. The buildings continued to be extended and rebuilt throughout the 70 years that the college spent at Regent's Park, especially after extensive damage from wartime bombing. The college colours were green and grey, said to be those of

Minerva Minerva (; ett, Menrva) is the Roman goddess of wisdom, justice, law, victory, and the sponsor of arts, trade, and strategy. Minerva is not a patron of violence such as Mars, but of strategic war. From the second century BC onward, the Rom ...

. Purple was added in 1938 to represent the university; the resulting colours were, by chance or design, similar to those of women's suffrage in the United Kingdom. A permanent record of the pictorial history of the college was made following the final reunion of former students and the collection and cataloguing of the archives in 1985. Bedford firsts include: *First women to run a British institution. *First Social Sciences department in the UK, established 1918 *First woman to hold a chair in philosophy in the UK,

Susan Stebbing Lizzie Susan Stebbing (2 December 1885 – 11 September 1943) was a British philosopher. She belonged to the 1930s generation of analytic philosophy, and was a founder in 1933 of the journal ''Analysis.'' Stebbing was the first woman to hold a p ...

. *One of the first two women Fellows of the

Royal Society The Royal Society, formally The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences. The society fulfils a number of roles: promoting science and its benefits, re ...

*Fourth woman chairman of the

Trades Union Congress The Trades Union Congress (TUC) is a national trade union centre, a federation of trade unions in England and Wales, representing the majority of trade unions. There are 48 affiliated unions, with a total of about 5.5 million members. Frances ...

(TUC),

Marie Patterson Constance Marie Patterson (1 April 1934 – 27 November 2021) was a British trade unionist. Patterson attended Pendleton High School, Salford, and Bedford College, London, before becoming active in the Transport and General Workers' Union (TGW ...

*The first art school in England where women could draw from life After a brief period of admitting a small number of male

postgraduate Postgraduate or graduate education refers to academic or professional degrees, certificates, diplomas, or other qualifications pursued by post-secondary students who have earned an undergraduate ( bachelor's) degree. The organization and ...

students, the college became fully coeducational when 47 men passed through clearing in 1965, and the name reverted to Bedford College. In the early 1980s, Bedford College had approximately 1,700 students and 200 academic staff based in 20 departments.

Merger with Royal Holloway

In 1985, Bedford College merged with

, another college of the University of London which, like Bedford College, had been a college for women only when it was first founded. The merged institution took Royal Holloway College's premises in

Egham Egham ( ) is a university town in the Borough of Runnymede in Surrey, England, approximately west of central London. First settled in the Bronze Age, the town was under the control of Chertsey Abbey for much of the Middle Ages. In 1215, Magna ...

, Surrey, just outside London, as its main campus and took on the name of Royal Holloway and Bedford New College (RHBNC). The decision to drop the Bedford name from day-to-day use caused some discontent among graduates of Bedford College, who felt that their old college had now essentially been taken over by Royal Holloway, and that Bedford College's name and history as a pioneering institution in the field of women's education were being forgotten. To give more prominence to the Bedford name, the merged college named a large, newly built library in the centre of its campus the "Bedford Library". Relations between RHUL and some of the Bedford College alumni remain somewhat strained, but many other Bedford College alumni maintain links with RHUL, supporting alumni events and other college work. Bedford College's old premises in Regent's Park is now the home of

Regent's University London Regent's University London (formerly Regent's College) is a private university located in London, England. It is part of Galileo Global Education, Europe’s largest higher education provider. Regent's University London was established in 1984 ...

Notable alumni

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and Professor of Social Relations at

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(born 1961), English actorRoyal Holloway, University of London
''

The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publish ...

'', 27 July 2007. Retrieved 29 August 2008. *

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, English communications professor *

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(born 1937), English publisher and campaigner for free expression *

Margaret Partridge Margaret Mary Partridge (8 April 1891 – 27 October 1967) was an electrical engineer, contractor and founder member of the Women's Engineering Society (WES) and the Electrical Association for Women (EAW). Her business worked with WES to identif ...

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and the

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(born 1948), Welsh Liberal Democrat member of the House of Lords * Winifred Raphael (1898–1978), English occupational psychologist * Hazel Alden Reason (1901–1976), English chemist and science writer * Sarah Remond (1826–1894), African-American abolitionist, one of the few African-American women to speak publicly about abolishing slavery in America during the 1800s."Pioneering women"
Royal Holloway University of London. *

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politician * Florence Yeldham (1877–1945), English school teacher and historian of arithmetic *

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Principals

* Elizabeth Jesser Reid, Founder (1849–1864) then run by trustees until first principal appointed * Dame Emily Penrose, First principal (1893–1898) also Royal Holloway (1898–1907) *

Ethel Hurlbatt Ethel Hurlbatt (1 July 1866 Bickley, Kent – 22 March 1934 Tours, France) was Principal of Bedford College, University of London, and later Warden of Royal Victoria College, the women's college of McGill University, in Montreal, Quebec, Canada ...

(1898–1906) * Dame Margaret Jansen Tuke (1907–1929) * Geraldine Emma May Jebb CBE (1930–1951) * Norah Lillian Penston (1951–1964) *

Elizabeth Millicent Chilver Elizabeth Leila Millicent "Sally" Chilver (née Graves; 3 August 1914 – 3 July 2014) was principal of Bedford College, University of London from 1964 to 1971 and Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford from 1971 to 1979. Background The only daughter of ...

(1964–1971), later Principal of Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford * John Nicholson Black (1971–1981) *

Dorothy Wedderburn Dorothy Enid Wedderburn (née Barnard, formerly Cole; 18 September 1925 – 20 September 2012)History of Royal Holloway and Bedford New CollegeRoyal Holloway, University of London ArchivesGenesis website page on Bedford College's archived papersGenesis website page on Elizabeth Jesser Reid's archived papersNotable Alumnae
webpage of Royal Holloway and Bedford New College
Bedford College student listsBedford College in World Ward II
accessed 27 May 2012 {{Authority control Royal Holloway, University of London Former colleges of the University of London Former women's universities and colleges in the United Kingdom Educational institutions established in 1849 Educational institutions disestablished in 1985 1849 establishments in England Regent's Park