Whitelands College

Whitelands College
University	University of Roehampton
Location	Roehampton, London, England
Established	1841
Named for	Whitelands House on the King's Road in Chelsea
Website	http://www.roehampton.ac.uk/whitelands/

Whitelands College is the oldest of the four constituent colleges of the University of Roehampton.

Whitelands College is one of the five oldest higher education institutions in England (predating every university except Oxford, Cambridge, London and Durham) and was founded in 1841 by the Church of England's National Society as a teacher training college for women. A flagship women's college of the Church of England, it was the first college of higher education in the UK to admit women. Associated with it was Whitelands College School, which opened in 1842; indirectly, this continues as Lady Margaret School.

The college was named after a Georgian building, Whitelands House, on King's Road in Chelsea, where it was originally based. Whitelands House was demolished and rebuilt in 1890 due to the increasing number of students. (The original Chelsea building was sold to the British Union of Fascists in the summer of 1933 and became known as "the Black House".)

The college outgrew Whitelands House in 1930 and moved to buildings designed by Sir Giles Gilbert Scott in Southfields, near Putney. Whitelands college was formally opened by Queen Mary in 1931. The extensive campus was expanded over the following years, with additional residential and academic buildings constructed on site. The college remained in Southfields until 2005, when it relocated to the current Roehampton site.

During the Second World War, the students of Whitelands College were evacuated to Homerton College (University of Cambridge), Bede College (Durham University) and Halifax.

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