Senate House (University of London)
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Senate House, the administrative centre of the University of London, lies in the heart of Bloomsbury between the School of Oriental and African Studies to the north and the British Museum to the south. The main entrance is from Malet Street to the west and the rear entrance from Russell Square to the east.
Main building
The main building contains the offices of the University of London and the main library. The building consists of 19 floors and is 210 feet high.Design and construction
The Art Deco design was the work of architect Charles Holden, who was appointed in February 1931. Construction work began in 1932, and King George V laid the ceremonial foundation stone on 26 June 1933. The building was completed in 1937. Its impressive size hailed the start of what was to be the largest seat of learning in the world; the original plans, however, detailed a building three times its original size, extending from the British Museum to the Octagon of University College London. A lack of funding and the onset of the Second World War deterred the original plans.A current in-joke within the university is that you can tell someone's political persuasion from how they describe the building's external architecture - if they call it 'fascist', they're left leaning; if they call it 'totalitarian' or 'Stalinist', they're right leaning
Oswald Mosley, leader of the British Union of Fascists, intended to house Parliament in the building in the event of his taking power. Hitler also intended it as his headquarters in London after the invasion of Britain - this may be truth or 'urban legend'[link].
Ministry of Information
At the outbreak of the Second World War, the library was moved out for the duration and some of the offices of the Ministry of Information moved in. George Orwell worked for this Ministry, in this building and elsewhere, and so this building is thought to have been the inspiration for the Ministry of Truth buildings in his novel Nineteen Eighty-Four.Present day
Senate House Tower remains a prominent landmark throughout most of Bloomsbury and is visible from some distance away. The building also contains the Offices of the Chancellor and one of Central London's largest restaurants. In late 2005 most of the university administrative offices moved to the adjacent building, Stewart House (32 Russell Square).Senate House Library
The fourth to the nineteenth floors of the building accommodate Senate House Library (formerly known as the University of London Library), which is open to staff and students of all colleges within the university and contains material relevant chiefly to arts and social science subjects. The library is administered by the central university as part the University of London Research Library Services. Notable resources include the Goldsmiths' Library of Economic Literature and the Palaeography Room, claimed to have the best collection in Europe of books relating to the study of western manuscripts.The Senate House tower in literature, tv and popular culture
Literature
- Nineteen Eighty-Four
- The Day of the Triffids, as 'the London tower'
TV appearances
- Film of [Nineteen Eighty-Four] (Ministry of Love)
- Film of Batman Begins (the hall of the courthouse)
- Film of Enduring Love
- Foyle's War, Series 2, Episode 3, War Games
- Jeeves and Wooster; Season 3 - used for exterior shots of Stuyvesant Towers, Bertie Wooster's Manhattan residence.
- Silent Witness
External links
- [University of London]
- [Senate House Library]
- [Twentieth Century Society - architectural model]
- [The History of Higher Education in Bloomsbury and Westminster - Senate House Library]
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