Whitelands College

Whitelands College is the oldest of the four constituent colleges of the University of Roehampton. History Whitelands College is one of the 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 originally based in, and named after, a Georgian building, Whitelands House, on King's Road, Chelsea. The original house was demolished and rebuilt in 1890 to meet the requirements of a growing number of students. In 1918 Winifred Mercier was appointed as the principal. The college continued to grow from 180 to 230 although the premises were noisy and the leases needed renewing. Mercier persuaded the Church of England that they should fund new buildings.In 1930, Mercier and the students moved to new premises designed by Sir Giles Gilbert Scott in Southfields, near Putney. (The Chelsea building was sold to the British Union of Fascists to be their national headquarters, becoming known subsequently as the "Black House".)