History of the University

The history of Royal Holloway and Bedford New College begins with the founding of Bedford College in 1849 by Elizabeth Jesser Reid (1789-1866). Reid was a social justice campaigner and advocate for causes such as abolitionism, suffrage, and the right to an education for women. As a wealthy widow, Reid was able to fund the creation of a higher education college at 47 Bedford Square in London which was to offer a liberal and non-sectarian education to women.  

Bedford offered a well-rounded and pioneering education to women at a time of great changes for women’s rights in the United Kingdom. The first student cohort of around 68 students could come to study at Bedford by day. The establishment of Bedford College gave a platform for other women’s colleges to be created, such as Girton College at Cambridge in 1869 (founded by Bedford alumna Barbara Bodichon and her Kensington Society fellow Emily Davies) and Somerville College at Oxford in 1879 (founded in part by Bedford trustee Eleanor Smith, and Bedford council member Anna Swanwick). 

As the general education level of students improved, Bedford expanded to 48 Bedford Square next door, eventually moving to a larger site at York Place in 1874. Expanding the site provided accommodation for students who wanted to board, enabling attendance from students who came from further afield.  

In the earliest days of the college students were not able to attain degrees, instead having the option to study a wide range of subjects and specialise later in the arts or sciences. In 1878 the University of London began to offer degrees to women, paving the way for Bedford women to apply through the University from the 1880s.  

Further growth in student numbers prompted the move to a new site at Regent’s Park in 1913. In 1985 the decision was taken to merge Bedford College and Royal Holloway to form Royal Holloway and Bedford New University. Although the original building on Bedford Square no longer forms part of the University, 11 Bedford Square was later acquired to retain a link to the original site of Bedford College and is part of the University’s central London campus.  

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The founders of Royal Holloway were Thomas Holloway (1800-1883) and his wife Jane (1814-1875). Thomas came from a family of bakers and innkeepers, and this entrepreneurial spirit was instilled in him from a young age. As a young man he met business owner Felix Albinolo who had created an ointment to sell to health-conscious wealthy Victorians. Inspired by this meeting, Holloway decided to create his own medicine business. 

Holloway’s success came through advertising. His cures featured on cigarette cards, were translated into several different languages, and featured on billboards in locations such as Niagara Falls and the Great Pyramid at Giza. 

Thomas Holloway married Jane Driver in 1840. Jane soon joined the business and began making instrumental changes, including the expansion to new premises at 533 New Oxford Street and hiring more staff to meet demand. Gradually the Holloways became the wealthiest people in Britain. 

By 1860 the Holloways had a thriving business but no heirs to inherit their fortune, so they looked for philanthropic projects in which to invest their wealth. A sanitorium was built for middle-class patients, and a second project to build a women’s college in nearby Egham began. The inspiration for the college is said to have come from Jane, who said ‘women are the greatest sufferers’. The idea for the college was to provide higher education for women and help to address educational inequality – at the time, women were not allowed to attend most universities.  

The first brick was laid by Jane’s brother-in-law George Martin in 1879, beginning the construction of Holloway College. Designed by Henry Crossland, the main building which is now known as the Founder’s building was based on the Chateau de Chambord in the Loire Vallery, featuring turrets and a structure based around two quads.  

Holloway College was opened by Queen Victoria in 1886 who was so impressed she bestowed the title of Royal to the college, making us Royal Holloway. Her visit was commemorated by a hero sized statue sculpted by Count Gleichen, which has remained on display in the north quad of the Founder’s Building. 

28 students arrived at Royal Holloway in 1887. They were looked after and taught by a staff of 10 headed by the first principal of the College, Matilda Ellen Bishop. Each student had a set of rooms comprising a bedroom facing into the quad for modesty and a study looking out onto the grounds, and they had the option to bring a maid to attend them. Many students kept diaries and created photo albums of their experiences at university, a selection of which are available to view in the University archives. 

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The Picture Gallery displays the art collection that Thomas Holloway purchased for Holloway College between 1881 and 1883 and is very similar today to when the College first opened in 1886.  

However, a magnificent art collection wasn’t part of the original plan. In the 1880s, when Thomas Holloway decided to proceed with his college project, he sent his brother-in-law on a research mission around the world. Hearing reports that Vassar College in New York State had a fabulous art collection, Holloway decided that his must have one too. The Picture Gallery, which was originally ear-marked to be a recreation room dedicated to the arts in the broadest sense, quickly became a space to display paintings.  

A key problem remained that Holloway College didn’t have an art collection to fill the new gallery. Thus, Holloway purchased 77 paintings between 1881 and 1883, the year he died. Much to the consternation of contemporary dealers, he purchased most of these directly at auction, and often at record prices that had an inflationary impact on the rest of the market. Holloway could have what he wanted, and what he wanted was a modern and contemporary collection for his students – comparable then to introducing something akin to Tate Modern into a University campus today. His collection is also thought to be the first specifically aimed at a female audience in Britain, and the works he selected are revealing in theme, subject, and style, both as a microcosm of high Victorian taste, and of the educational and social aspirations Holloway held for the young women who attended his college. 

In the collection we see famed artists of the time including Edwin Landseer, John Everett Millais and William Powell Frith. We also see Holloway’s own interests, scenes of the Scilly Isles where he liked to visit and the infamous Franklin expedition which is represented in the polar bears painting Man Proposes, God Disposes. There are also paintings that speak to social justice issues and debates raging in Victorian society – the plight of the poor, the state of prisons, women’s rights in marriage. These may have been included to encourage the viewing students to use their enquiring minds and make up their own opinion on these issues. 

Thomas Holloway’s collecting policy stated that the artists of any artwork purchased for the Picture Gallery must have exhibited at the Royal Academy. Whilst this kept a high calibre of art within the collection, it also meant that no artworks by women artists were collected as the first woman Royal Academician was not elected until 1922. This woman was Annie Swynnerton, and we hold one of her paintings of Lady Christiana Herringham’s sons in our collection.  

The Gallery was visited by Queen Victoria in 1886 when she came to open the College, whereupon she remarked what ‘fine specimens of modern art’ were on display. 

Today the Gallery is a multi-purpose space used for teaching and events, as well as open days as a Picture Gallery. The collection stays true to its original purpose and is still used as a teaching collection by the art collections team and various other departments. Our wider art collection contains modern art and a large collection of works on paper, most of which came to us when we merged with Bedford College in 1985.