Queen's College, London

F. D. Maurice's portrait hanging on the college's staircase

In 1845, David Laing, chaplain of the Middlesex Hospital raised funds with a committee of patrons to acquire a building at 47 Harley Street with the intention of creating a home for unemployed governesses.

Laing was keen to develop the institution to provide governesses with an education and certification. In 1847, he acquired the agreement of professors from King's College London to give lectures in the Home. Queen Victoria gave her assent, promise of funds and patronage. In 1847, the first lectures took place, the Committee of Education was established under the chair of F. D. Maurice, and number 45 was purchased. In December of the same year, the first certificates were issued. Meanwhile, it was decided to extend the reach of the education on offer to women who were not governesses.[2]

The Waiting Room

The establishment of the college was met with criticism by the press, F. D. Maurice was forced to defend the intention of teaching mathematics to women against claims of its 'dangerous' consequences.[2]

The composers William Sterndale Bennett and John Pyke Hullah were among the founding directors.

In the early days of the College, lectures were given to a single classroom of girls ranging from 12 to 20 years of age. The younger pupils were soon to be given their own school at the back of the buildings, which was also open to boys. The Waiting Room became the place where girls would gather and be introduced by the Lady Resident to their chaperones who remained with them throughout their classes and were known as the 'Lady Visitors' (one of them being Henrietta Stanley, Baroness Stanley of Alderley). When the college was separated from the Governesses' Benevolent Institution in 1853, a new Governing Council was established, with the 'Visitor', the Bishop of London as its figurehead, an arrangement which continues to this day. Following the resignation of Maurice in 1853, Richard Chenevix Trench became the first principal and took over as Chair of the Committee of Education.[2]

The college had resisted attempts to become, or merge with, a college of London University. The Lady Resident Eleanor Grove[3] and linguist Rosa Morison had left together in the 1880s because of this and they returned to lead College Hall, London.[4]

The practice of offering lectures from visitors throughout the year is a tradition of the college.

During the Second World War, the college escaped destruction when a bomb exploded on the opposite side of Harley Street. The windows at the front of the building were smashed and plaster work damaged. The college continued to function during the war with classes held in bomb shelters constructed in the main corridor. Evacuation of the pupils to the Lake District and then to Northamptonshire was short-lived.[2]

The college ceased to offer boarding accommodation in the 1980s and Kynaston House was re-modelled from the accommodation to offices, a senior common room and a library.

In 2002, Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother opened Queen's College Preparatory School at 61 Portland Place.

Each student is assigned to a form of approximately 18–22 members. The forms are headed by a tutor and deputy, and take their name from the initials of the tutor. There are two or three forms in a year and each year is under the watch of a year head. The years comprise the three sections of the College, each with a further delegated head.

Senior Library

Georgian staircase

The teacher in every department, if he does his duty, will admonish his pupils that they are not to make fashion, or public opinion, their rule; that they are not to draw or play, or to study arithmetic, or language or literature or history, in order to shine or be admired; that if these are their ends, they will not be sincere in their work or do it well.[5] — F. D. Maurice

Alumna Katherine Mansfield

Founded in 1891, the Old Queen's Society exists to connect former pupils with each other and the school. The first Honorary Secretary was Frideswide Kekewich and the first President, Ellen Howard.

Known as Old Queens,[6] alumnae have included many notable women over the school's history, including:

• Matilda Ellen Bishop (c. 1858–60), first Principal of Royal Holloway College (1887–1897)
• Mary Wardell (c.1851) founder of Convalescent Home for Scarlet Fever
• Camilla Croudace, Lady Resident at Queen's College (1881–1906)[7]
• Nora Kerin (1883-1970), actress
• Gertrude Bell (1884–86), archaeologist, cartologist, diplomat[7]
• Katherine Mansfield (1903–06), poet and author
• Rosalie Glynn Grylls, Lady Mander (1919–23), biographer, lecturer, Liberal politician, art collector, who wrote a history of the College
• Sofka Skipwith (Princess Sofka Dolgorouk), Russian émigré, Communist, political prisoner, recipient of British Hero of the Holocaust honour
• Anne Said (1925–30), artist
• Diana Barnato Walker (1928–34), author and aviator
• Mary Soames (1940), Chairman, Royal National Theatre Board and daughter of Winston Churchill
• Jacqueline du Pré (1959), cellist
• Anna Wintour OBE (1960–3), editor-in-chief, Vogue[8]
• Jane Asher, actress, entrepreneur, and philanthropist
• Hermione Lee (1963–65), biographer and Goldsmith Professor of English Literature, Oxford
• Harriet Cass, BBC announcer
• Barbara Thompson, musician
• Daisy Goodwin (1972–77), BBC television producer
• Emma Freud (1973–80), broadcaster, member of the prominent Freud family
• Claudia Rosencrantz (1975–79), journalist, Controller of Entertainment, ITV, Commissioner of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?, X Factor and I'm A Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here!, Director of Programming, Living TV, Director of Television, Virgin Media
• Susannah Constantine (1978), journalist, television presenter and fashion guru
• Amber Rudd (1979–81), MP
• Asma al-Assad, First Lady of Syria
• Peaches Geldof, writer, presenter and model
• Peggy Cripps, author, philanthropist and socialite
• Frances Helen Prideaux, the first woman to be competitively appointed as a surgeon to a London hospital[9][10]

• Grylls, Rosalie Glynn,[11] Queen's College 1848–1948: Founded by Frederick Denison Maurice,London: George Routledge & Sons, 1948
• Kaye, Elaine,[12] A History of Queen's College, London 1848–1972, London: Chatto & Windus, 1972
• Billings, Malcolm, Queen's College: 150 Years and a New Century, London: James & James, 2000

• Queen's College website
• Old Queen's Society
• Queen's College Preparatory School
• British history on line: Queen's College, Harley Street
• Profile on the Good Schools Guide