The story
Origins
City St George's traces its origin to the Northampton Institute and the City Law School (established in 1852). The first was named after the 4th Marquess of Northampton who donated the land on which the institute was built, between Northampton Square and St John Street in Islington. The institute was established to provide for the education and welfare of the local population. It was constituted under the City of London Parochial Charities Act (1883), with the objective of "the promotion of the industrial skill, general knowledge, health and well-being of young men and women belonging to the poorer classes".
Northampton Polytechnic Institute was an institute of technology in Clerkenwell, London, founded in 1894. Its first Principal was Robert Mullineux Walmsley.
Alumni include Colin Cherry, Stuart Davies and Anthony Hunt. Arthur George Cocksedge, a British gymnast who competed in the 1920 Summer Olympics, was a member of the Northampton Polytechnic Institute's Gymnastics Club and was Champion of the United Kingdom in 1920. In 1937 Maurice Dennis of the (Northampton Polytechnic ABC) was the 1937 ABA Middleweight Champion. Frederick Handley Page was a lecturer in aeronautics at the institute. The Handley Page Type A, the first powered aircraft designed and built by him, ended up as an instructional airframe at the school. The novelist Eric Ambler studied engineering at the institute.
The six original departments at the institute were Applied Physics and Electrical Engineering; Artistic Crafts; Domestic Economy and Women's Trades; Electro-Chemistry; Horology; and Mechanical Engineering and Metal Trades.
20th century
A separate technical optics department was established in 1903–04. In 1909, the first students qualified for University of London BSc degrees in engineering as internal students. The Institute had been involved in aeronautics education since that year, and the School of Engineering and Mathematical Sciences celebrated the centenary of aeronautics at City in 2009. The institute was used for the 1908 Olympic Games; boxing took place there.
In 1957, the institute was designated a "College of Advanced Technology".
The institute's involvement in information science began in 1961, with the introduction of a course on "Collecting and Communicating Scientific Knowledge". City received its royal charter in 1966, becoming "The City University" to reflect the institution's close links with the City of London. The Apollo 15 astronauts visited City in 1971, and presented the Vice-Chancellor, Tait, with a piece of heat shield from the Apollo 15 rocket.
In October 1995, it was announced that City University would merge with both the St Bartholomew School of Nursing & Midwifery and the Charterhouse College of Radiography, doubling the number of students in City's Institute of Health Sciences to around 2,500.
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21st century
The university formed a strategic alliance with Queen Mary, University of London, in April 2001. In May 2001, a fire in the college building gutted the fourth-floor offices and roof. In August 2001 City and the Inns of Court School of Law agreed to merge. Following a donation from Sir John Cass's Foundation, a multimillion-pound building was built at 106 Bunhill Row for the Business School.
A new £23 million building to house the School of Social Sciences and the Department of Language and Communication Science was opened in 2004. The reconstruction and redevelopment of the university's Grade II listed college building (following the fire in 2001) was completed in July 2006.
In 2007 the School of Arts received a £10m building refurbishment. A new students' union venue opened in October 2008 called "TEN squared", which provides a hub for students to socialise in during the day and hosts a wide range of evening entertainment including club nights, society events and quiz nights.
In January 2010, premises were shared with the University of East Anglia (UEA) London, following City's partnership with INTO University Partnerships. Since then City has resumed its own International Foundation Programme to prepare students for their pre-university year. City was ranked among the top 30 higher education institutions in the UK by the Times Higher Education Table of Tables.
In April 2011, it was announced that the current halls of residence and Saddler's Sports Centre will be closed and demolished for rebuilding in June 2011. The new student halls and sports facility, now known as CitySport, opened in 2015.
In September 2016 the City University became a member institution of the federal University of London and changed its name to City, University of London.
In 2024, St George's, University of London merged with the university with the combined institution rebranding as City St George's, University of London the following year.
From Wikipedia’s article on City, University of London, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.5