Students have formed a significant part of London’s population since the foundation of its first university in 1826. Most studies of London, however, neglect higher education while students are generally only minor characters in existing university histories.
Student London centres their experiences in the city’s history, drawing on a rich source base ranging from institutional records to college magazines, court reports to secret service files, and many hundreds of student memoirs and oral histories to tell the 200-year story of student life in the capital.
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It offers a detailed examination of life at the original London University (known as University College London since 1836) alongside many other institutions that eventually joined with UCL. Student London captures a diverse range of higher education experiences across medical schools, teacher training colleges and specialist institutes.
A sweeping history of an ever-changing city, the book engages in much greater depth with London’s imperial history than earlier studies of higher education.
Student London also explores the significance of international students, presenting an authentic story of diverse student experiences in London. It examines students’ everyday lives, fees and funding, collegiate cultures, social and political engagement, physical and mental health, recreation, sports and leisure. In doing so, it charts changing student attitudes to class, race, gender, sex and sexuality across two centuries.
About the Authors
Georgina Brewis is Professor of Social History at UCL, where she specialises in the nineteenth and twentieth century histories of education, charity and humanitarianism.
Sam Blaxland is Lecturer in Education at UCL, specialising in the history of British society, politics, protest and education since 1945.
