St Bartholomew's Hospital Medical College and The London Hospital Medical College The Medical College of The Royal London Hospital (now part of the School of Medicine and Dentistry) was England's first medical school when it opened in 1785. In 1850,
Elizabeth Blackwell became the first fully qualified female doctor in the UK, after training at St Bartholomew's Hospital. In 1910 the college's status in the University of London was extended for a further five years, with unlimited membership achieved in May 1915. During this period the organisation of the governors of the People's Palace was rearranged, creating the separate People's Palace Committee and East London College Committee, both under the Palace Governors, as a sign of the growing separation of the two concepts within a single complex. During the First World War, the college admitted students from The
London Hospital Medical College who were preparing for the preliminary medical examination, the first step in a long process that would eventually bring the two institutions together. After the war, the college grew, albeit constrained by the rest of the People's Palace to the west and a burial ground immediately to the east. In 1920 it obtained both the Palace's Rotunda (now the Octagon) and rooms under the winter gardens at the west of the palace, which became chemical laboratories. The college's status was also unique, being the only School of the University of London that was subject to both the Charity Commissioners and the
Board of Education. In April 1929 the College Council decided it would take the steps towards applying to the
Privy Council for a
Royal Charter, but on the advice of the Drapers' Company first devised a scheme for development and expansion, which recommended among other things to re-amalgamate the People's Palace and the college, with guaranteed provision of the Queen's Hall for recreational purposes, offering at least freedom of governance if not in space.
Queen Mary College In the early hours of 25 February 1931 a fire destroyed the Queen's Hall, though both the college and the winter gardens escaped. In the coming days discussions on reconstruction led to the proposal that the entire site be transferred to the college which would then apply for a charter alone. The Drapers' Company obtained St Helen's Terrace, a row of six houses neighbouring the site, and in July 1931 it was agreed to give these over to the People's Palace for a new site adjacent to the old, which would now become entirely the domain of the college. Separation was now achieved. The Charter was now pursued, but the Academic Board asked for a name change, feeling that "East London" carried unfortunate associations that would hinder the college and its graduates. With the initial proposed name, "Queen's College", having already been taken by
The Queen's College, Oxford and "Victoria College" felt to be unoriginal, "Queen Mary College" was settled on. The Charter of Incorporation was presented on 12 December 1934 by
Queen Mary herself.
Under the charter During the
Second World War, the college was evacuated to
Cambridge, where it shared with
King's College. After the war the college returned to London, facing many of the same problems but with prospects for westward expansion. The East End had suffered considerable bomb damage (although the college itself had incurred little) and consequently several areas of land near to the college site now became vacant. New buildings for physics, engineering, biology and chemistry were built on the new sites, whilst the arts took over the space vacated in the original building, now renamed the Queens' Building. Limited accommodation resulted in the acquisition of further land in
South Woodford (now directly connected to
Mile End tube station by means of the
Central line's eastward extension), upon which tower blocks were established. The college also obtained the Co-operative Wholesale Society's clothing factory on the Mile End Road which was converted into a building for the Faculty of Laws (and some other teaching), as well as the former headquarters of
Spratt's Patent Ltd (operators of the "largest dog biscuit factory in the world" – see
Spratt's Complex) at 41–47 Bow Road, which was converted into a building for the Faculty of Economics founded by
Maurice Peston, Baron Peston. Both faculties were physically separated from what was now a campus to the west. From the mid-1960s until the mid-1980s the college proposed to link with the
London Hospital Medical College and
St Bartholomew's Hospital Medical College with a joint facility in Mile End. A further link with both The London and St. Bartholomew's was made in 1974 when an anonymous donor provided for the establishment of a further hall of residence in Woodford, to be divided equally between Queen Mary College students and the two medical colleges. At the start of the 1980s changing demographics and finances led to a reorganisation of the University of London. At Queen Mary some subjects, such as Russian and
Classics were discontinued, whilst the college became one of five in the university with a concentration of laboratory sciences, including the transfer of science departments from
Westfield College,
Chelsea College,
Queen Elizabeth College and
Bedford College.
1989 to 2010 . In 1989 Queen Mary College (informally known as QMC) merged with
Westfield College to form Queen Mary & Westfield College (often abbreviated to QMW). In the years that followed, operations became focused on the Queen Mary site, leading to the eventual sale of the Westfield site. In 1990, The London Hospital was renamed The Royal London Hospital, after marking its 250th year, and a re-organisation of medical education within the University of London resulted in most of the free-standing medical schools being merged with existing large colleges to form multi-faculty institutions. In 1995 The
London Hospital Medical College and
St Bartholomew's Hospital Medical College merged into Queen Mary & Westfield College to form an entity named Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry. In 2000 the college changed its name for general public use to Queen Mary, University of London; in 2013, the college legally changed its name to Queen Mary University of London. The
VISTA telescope is a 4-metre class
wide-field telescope at the
Paranal Observatory in Chile that was conceived and developed by a consortium of UK universities led by Queen Mary University, costing approximately £36m. The Westfield Student Village opened in 2004 on the Mile End Campus, bringing over 2,000 rooms to students and a huge array of facilities, restaurants, and cafes. The
Blizard Building, home to the Medical School's Institute of Cell and Molecular Science opened at the
Whitechapel campus in 2005. The award-winning building was designed by
Will Alsop, and is named after
William Blizard, an English surgeon and founder of The
London Hospital Medical College in 1785. The year 2006 saw the refurbishment of The Octagon, the original library of the People's Palace dating back to 1888. In 2007 parts of the School of Law – postgraduate facilities and the Centre for Commercial Law Studies – moved to premises in
Lincoln's Inn Fields in central London. The Women at Queen Mary Exhibition was staged in the Octagon, marking 125 years of Westfield College and 120 years of Queen Mary College.
2010 to present Queen Mary became one of the few university-level institutions to implement a requirement of the A* grade at A-Level after its introduction in 2010 on some of their most popular courses, such as Engineering, Law, and Medicine. Following on from the
2010 UK student protests, Queen Mary set fees of £9,000 per year for September 2012 entry, while also offering bursaries and scholarships. On 12 March 2012 it was announced that Queen Mary would be joining the
Russell Group in August 2012. Later in March, Queen Mary and the
University of Warwick announced the creation of a strategic partnership, including research collaboration, joint teaching of English, history and computer science undergraduates, and the creation of eight joint post-doctoral research fellowships. In January 2013, Queen Mary established the world's first professorial chair in animal replacement science. From 2014, Queen Mary began awarding its own degrees, rather than those of the University of London. Queen Mary became the first Russell Group university to offer
Degree Apprenticeships and three years later was the first UK university to launch a social change degree, the BSc in Chartered Manager Degree Apprenticeship. In 2021, Queen Mary became the first UK university to receive the Platinum-level Engage Watermark from the National Co-ordinating Centre for Public Engagement. In 2024, Queen Mary University of London was affected by
pro-Palestinian campus protests linked to the
Gaza conflict, forming part of a wider wave of student encampments and occupations at UK universities. The university was reported to have been in contact with police during the demonstrations, alongside implementing security measures and disciplinary processes. Queen Mary cited concerns over campus access, safety and operational disruption. ==Campuses==