Department of History - Royal Holloway, University of London

Resources
Facilities
The History Department is based in the award-winning McCrea
building located at the heart of the campus. The Department
spends comfortably more than the UK average on books.
Most of these are housed in the nearby Bedford Library, which
provides all the facilities expected of a modern university library:
comfortable reader spaces, easy access to book stocks, and a
vast range of information technology. As well as the libraries
(both here and in central London such as the Senate House
Library), we encourage students to utilise IT facilities in support
of their learning and research. The Computer Centre on campus
has a wide range of computing facilities, open 24 hours a day, and
Royal Holloway is recognised as a leader in IT provision. Most
of our courses utilise our Virtual Learning Environment (VLE),
Moodle, in exciting and innovative ways.
University of London
Royal Holloway is one of the largest colleges in the University of
London, which has over 240 researching and teaching historians;
and a worldwide reputation as a leading centre of historical
study. As a student at Royal Holloway, you will have the option
(subject to availability) of choosing from some of the courses run
at other colleges such as Kings and UCL. This further extends
the remarkable array of courses available to you. As well as the
extensive resources on campus, you will also have access to the
unparalleled wealth of collections in many of the libraries of the
University of London system. A good degree from the University
of London is respected everywhere as a highly-regarded
qualification.
College Archives
Today’s Royal Holloway is the product of the pioneering work of
two Victorian visionaries, Thomas Holloway and Elizabeth Jesser
Reid. Both played a crucial role in the development of equality in
education through the creation of two colleges for women, Royal
Holloway College and Bedford College, within the University of
London. The two colleges merged to form the present College in
1985. The College Archives chart our history and also plot more
broadly the progression of higher education for women. There
are official records created by the colleges, including student
registers, photographs and architectural drawings, as well as
collections of personal papers deposited by former students and
members of staff. Closely linked is the Bedford Centre for the
History of Women. Students are encouraged to use these unique
resources.
“My history degree at Royal Holloway provided a
wonderful preparation for a career in law. I learned to
analyse documents relating to human affairs, consider
that material in a critical way, organise and express my
thoughts clearly and succinctly and defend them when
necessary. The History department was a far more friendly
place than the High Court, but the intellectual standards
required were no different.”
Scott Matthewson, Barrister
Department of History
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