Goodenough College

Goodenough College
Middlesex
Goodenough College entrance
Principal:
Website:	goodenough.ac.uk
Location
Grid reference:	TQ30658230
Location:	51°31’28"N, 0°7’5"W

Goodenough College is a postgraduate residence and educational trust in Mecklenburgh Square in Bloomsbury in Middlesex, just beyond the bounds of the City of London. Other names under which the college has been known are London House, William Goodenough House, and the London Goodenough Trust.

The College is an educational charity that provides residential accommodation for talented British and international postgraduates and their families studying in London. The College attempts to provide community through a programme of intellectual, cultural, and social activities that aims to provide students with an international network and a global outlook.

Goodenough has residential and study facilities and provides a programme of activities whose goal is to enhance students' personal, social and intellectual development. In a typical year, the College is home to approximately 700 international postgraduate students and their families, from approximately 80 different nations.

History

Foundation

Goodenough College was set up in 1930 by a group of prominent Londoners, including the chairman of Barclays Bank and founder of Barclays Bank DCO (Dominion, Colonial, and Overseas) Frederick Craufurd Goodenough. Goodenough and his friends wanted to provide collegiate life along Oxbridge lines to young men coming to London from the British dominions and colonies, who could be seen as prospective leaders of what was then a large empire. The College aimed to serve as a moot hall for its residents, and a place where they could form lasting friendships in a spirit of tolerance and understanding.

The search for a site for the new college was centred on Bloomsbury, to which the University of London was preparing a move from South Kensington. A site for sale as freehold was found between Guilford Street and Mecklenburgh Square, and the College bought it in 1930.

London House

There were plans to design and build a new college, but this would have taken time which the governors did not want to waste. In the traditional manner of Bloomsbury's philanthropic institutions, they made a start in a small way in some of the roomy old houses on the site. London House first opened its doors in October 1931, in Nos. 4–7 Caroline Place (now Mecklenburgh Place) on the west side of the site. The house was soon full, with a long waiting list, and by the start of Second First World Wart occupied all the Caroline Place properties.

A new London House for 300 single students was built between 1935 and 1963 to the designs of the architect Herbert Baker, his partner Alexander Scott, and their successor Vernon Helbing. It was completed in three stages:

• Stage 1 (1935–37). The south-east corner includes the Great Hall, Charles Parsons Library, common rooms, and the Guilford Street entrance. This was the only part to be completed in Herbert Baker's lifetime.
• Stage 2 (1948–53). The rest of the south wing, the west wing, and the north-west corner. Alexander Scott continued in Baker's style, with some simplification of detail.
• Stage 3 (1961–63). The north wing, including the north-east corner. It was built to a lower cost than the other stages, without flint-work. At the same time, architect Vernon Helbing created the college chapel out of former offices.

William Goodenough House

In the 1940s, at the instigation of the Chairman of the College Governors, William Goodenough, the Lord Mayor of London launched a Thanksgiving Fund to raise money in Britain, and to thank people of Commonwealth countries and the United States for gifts, including food parcels, during and after Second World War. The money raised was used to build William Goodenough House for women and married students from those countries, replacing houses destroyed or badly damaged in the war on the northeast of the Square. At the same time, the bombed houses in adjacent Heathcote Street were rebuilt as an annex, and the House was completed in 1957. Later wings, Julian Crossley Court (1974) and Ashley Ponsonby Court (1991), brought the capacity of the House up to 120 rooms for single students and 60 flats for married couples and families.

The two parallel institutions developed their characters over time – the quiet surroundings of the William Goodenough House common rooms appealed to some London House residents, and various "Willie G" girls preferred the noisier atmosphere of the London House bar. Traditions developed, such as the London House rugby team singing lullabies to the inhabitants of William Goodenough House after the annual sports dinner, and many LH-WGH romances flourished, and in some cases resulted in marriage and children. The two houses, London House and William Goodenough House eventually became mixed in 1991.

The Goodenough on Mecklenburgh Square

Nos. 22–25 Mecklenburgh Square survived the war and were used as a nurses’ home until 1989 when they were handed back in a dilapidated state. At first, the houses were repaired and used as inexpensive accommodation for short-stay visitors, mostly returning alumni and other academics in London to attend conferences and seminars. By 1997, however, it was apparent that the building required modernisation if they were to meet the standards that would be required in the 21st century.

The houses were closed, and plans were made to add No. 21 and renovate and upgrade for £3.5 million. There were delays because the Georgian houses are listed buildings in a conservation area. Eventually, the plans were passed, and the Goodenough Club opened in April 2001. The hotel is open to academic and professional visitors as well as conference delegates from around the world and was renamed The Goodenough on Mecklenburgh Square in 2018.

Outside links

("Wikimedia Commons" has material about Goodenough College)

• Goodenough College