Goodenough College

Goodenough College is a postgraduate residence and educational trust on Mecklenburgh Square in Bloomsbury, central London, England. Other names under which the College has been known are London House, William Goodenough House, and the London Goodenough Trust.

The College is an international residential centre for postgraduates—whether academic, professional or artistic—studying or training in London. As of September 2012 the community consists of just over 700 students and senior scholars from over 90 different countries, many with partners and families.

The current Director of the College is Major General Andrew Ritchie CBE, formerly Commandant of the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst (RMAS).

Goodenough has residential and study facilities and an extensive extra-curricular programme, which includes a conference series aimed at examining subjects of international concern. Its membership includes Visiting Fellows, who act as advisors to these conferences, and Goodenough Fellows, who have a more informal role as advisors and mentors to members.

The college is located in London and set on Mecklenburgh Square, around a private garden to which only residents have access.

The Foundation, 1930

The College was incorporated in 1930, by a group of prominent Londoners, including the Chairman of Barclays Bank and founder of Barclays DCO, Frederick Craufurd Goodenough. Goodenough and his friends wanted to provide able young men coming to London from the Dominions and Colonies, future leaders of what was then a large Empire, with a collegiate life along Oxbridge lines in London. The College was a moot hall and at the same time a place where they would form lasting friendships in tolerance and understanding.

The search for a site for the new college was centred on Bloomsbury, to which the University of London was preparing a move from South Kensington. An ideal island site for sale freehold was found between Guilford Street and Mecklenburgh Square, and the College bought it in 1930.

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