Highfield Campus

Highfield Campus is the main campus of the University of Southampton and is located in Southampton, southern England. It is the largest of the University's campuses with most of the students studying there. The campus is also the location of the main university library, the students' union as well as sports facilities.

The University's predecessor the Hartley Institute first bought the Highfield site in June 1909 at the cost of £5,000 (£500,000 in 2014). Their old premises on the High Street no longer met the requirements of the Board of Education and the Treasury and so a new site was required for the College to expand.

The first campus buildings were opened on 20 June 1914 by the Lord Chancellor, Viscount Haldane. However soon after moving, the two buildings were handed over by the college authorities to the army for use throughout the First World War as a military hospital, with the college students and staff using the old High Street buildings until 1919. The campus was opened after the war in October 1919 with the college using two buildings (now forming part of the Hartley Library) which housed classes and laboratory facilities for the three hundred students. Due to difficulties in selling them on for a reasonable price, the High Street premises remained part of the college until the mid 1930s when they were sold for a combined total of £8,000.

By the end of the 1930s the College had expanded to nearly 1,000 students, requiring further buildings to be constructed. Those that were constructed were designed by Colonel R. T, Gutteridge and his firm, made of brick. However, despite this the college still made use of wooden temporary buildings, constructed during the First World War, and which were used as laboratories, plant houses and teaching buildings for the Geology, Music and Arts department right up until the 1960s. Due to lacking finances, and the more pressing need for accommodation, any new buildings constructed during this period were the result of legacies: the George Moore Botanical Laboratories were constructed in 1927 (later housed the Careers Advice service and demolished in 2011) and the Zoology building in 1931 (Now the EScience building) was the result of an anonymous donation of £8,000. The social experience was also improved with the creation of an assembly hall in the 1920s large enough to house the student population.

...
Wikipedia