page_title: History of King's College London
section_title: 1939–1980
hierarchical_section_title: History of King's College London / 20th century / 1939–1980
caption_attribution_description: English: King's College London Students Evacuated To Bristol, England, 1940 Students from King's College London University study in the Great Hall of Bristol University, which has become the King's College temporary library. This particular study session lasted from 11:30am until 12:45pm.
context_page_description: The history of King's College London, on its own, spans over 190 years since it was founded by Royal Charter. King George IV granted such charter on 14 August 1829. The full history, however, includes the medical schools than now constitute King's College London GKT School of Medical Education. This incorporates St Thomas's Hospital Medical School, one of the oldest medical schools in Britain, with a history of medical teaching that can be traced back to at least 1561. St Thomas' Hospital itself dates back to 1173, and has roots in the establishment of St Mary Overie Priory in 1106.
context_section_description: During the Second World War most students and staff were evacuated out of London to Bristol and Glasgow. Students from King's College of Household and Social Science were evacuated first to Cardiff and then to Leicester. The buildings of King's College London were used by the Auxiliary Fire Service with a number of King's staff, mainly those then known as college servants, serving as firewatchers under the leadership of Robert Hutton, the College librarian. Parts of the Strand building, the quadrangle, and the roof of apse and stained glass windows of the chapel suffered bomb damage in the Blitz. During reconstruction, the vaults beneath the quadrangle were replaced by a two-storey laboratory, which opened in 1952, for the departments of Physics and Civil and Electrical Engineering.
  In 1948 the creation of the National Health Service meant the separation of the Guy's, King's and St Thomas's Medical Schools from their respective hospitals. In 1953 the King's College of Household and Social Science received a Royal Charter under the name of Queen Elizabeth College and admitted men for the first time. In 1956 or was recognised as a school of the University of London.
  After plans to move into the east wing of Somerset House were again rejected, the Strand Building was commissioned in 1954. Planning permission was granted in 1961 and the building was constructed in 1966–71. It is described by Historic England as "a modest and relatively undistinguished example of its type, relating awkwardly to its historic surroundings and embodying – in contrast with other, more ambitious post-war university buildings – no particular innovations in functionality or architectural design".
  One of the most famous pieces of scientific research performed at King's were the crucial contributions to the discovery of the double helix structure of DNA in 1953 by Maurice Wilkins and Rosalind Franklin, together with Raymond Gosling, Alex Stokes, Herbert Wilson and other colleagues at the Randall Division of Cell and Molecular Biophysics at King's.
  Major reconstruction of King's began in 1966 following the publication of the Robbins Report on Higher Education. The Strand Building, designed by E. D. Jefferiss Mathews, was opened in 1972. The Macadam Building was then built over 1972–75. Planning permission for further new buildings on the Strand campus, linking the Macadam Building to the Strand Building (Phase III) and the Strand Building to Somerset House (Phase IV), was refused following the listing of older buildings on the area and the designation, in 1974, of the Strand Conservation Area. Renewed efforts were made in the 1960s and 70s to acquire the east wing of Somerset House, but these were again unsuccessful.
caption: Evacuated King's College London students at the University of Bristol during the Second World War
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