On the outskirts of Egham towards the village of Englefield Green is the huge and ornate Royal Holloway Founders Building, modelled on the French Chateau de Chambord. Built for the Victorian philanthropist, Thomas Holloway, as a college for women it was opened by Queen Victoria in 1886 and contains an excellent small art gallery, which can be viewed by prior appointment.
The great architectural feature of Englefield Green is Royal Holloway, part of the University of London, which stands among trees, gardens and playing fields between the village and the railway. This vast and splendid building was originally Royal Holloway College, one of the first women's colleges in the country when it was opened by Queen Victoria in 1886. It is one of the most impressive Victorian structures anywhere around London and was built between 1879 and 1887 to the designs of W.H. Crossland for Thomas Holloway, for whom Crossland also designed the Holloway Sanatorium at Virginia Water.
Holloway's
genius for advertising and marketing his patent medicines "Holloway's
Ointment" and "Holloway's Pills", combined with his hard
work and a flair for investments, made him a fortune which he used in part
to build his College for the higher education of women. The original Royal
Holloway College building known as "Founder's", is in the French
Renaissance style if the Chateau at Chambord on the Loire. It measures 550
by 376 feet and is built around a double courtyard. The exterior is ornate
with an amazing array of chimneys, turrets, gables, balustrades and classical
urns which combine to make a castle like roofline visible over the treetops
from miles away. Inside "Founder's" are a number of remarkable
formal rooms, including a chapel, a library and a picture gallery. The gallery
houses paintings by some of the best known Victorian artists including Millais,
Landseer, Fildes, Frith, Holl and Maclise.
Royal Holloway, University of London was formed in 1985 by the amalgamation of Royal Holloway and Bedford Colleges, both originally women's colleges of the University of London which admitted men undergraduates in 1965. The College now has a student population of over 4000 and numerous academic departments housed mostly in purpose built modem buildings on the campus. A wide range of arts and science undergraduates and postgraduate degree courses are offered. In addition, the College is actively widening its contact with the local community through the provision of research facilities, tailor-made short courses for industry and commerce and programmes of public lectures and concerts.
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