Royal Holloway, University of London was founded by two Victorian visionaries, Elizabeth Jesser Reid and Thomas Holloway. Both played a crucial role in the development of equality in education through the creation of two colleges for women, Bedford College in central London, and Royal Holloway College in Surrey, 19 miles to the west of London. Their foresight and philanthropy have ensured opportunities for many generations of students.

Elizabeth Jesser Reid, a pioneering social reformer, founded Bedford College in 1849 as the first college in Britain opened for the higher education of women. Its location in Bedford Square was expensive and restricting, and the struggle to provide suitable accommodation for a continually expanding but financially under-endowed establishment led to a number of moves in central London, before finding a base in Regent's Park in 1913. The College remained here until the time of the merger with Royal Holloway College in 1985. Bedford College was the very first institution to play a leading role not only in the advancement of women in higher education, but also in public life in general. As soon as the University Degree examinations were opened to women in 1878, Bedford College produced graduates in both the Arts and Sciences. In the last sessions over 1500 students were studying at the College in 21 different subject departments.

Thomas Holloway was a self-made multi-millionaire whose fortune had been made in patent medicines. He founded Royal Holloway College in 1879 after initiating a public debate inviting suggestions as to 'How best to spend a quarter of a million or more'. It was his wife Jane who suggested a college for women as the means by which Holloway's money might effect 'the greatest public good'. Holloway's first great philanthropic enterprise, the Sanatorium at Virginia Water opened in 1885. The second, Royal Holloway College, largely inspired by the Chateau of Chambord in the Loire Valley, was opened by Queen Victoria in 1886. Built around two quadrangles, today it continues to impress as much by its size as by the exuberance of the roofline with its many towers and turrets. As solid as it is extravagant, it epitomises the wealth, optimism and spirit of philanthropy so characteristic of the Victorian age. It continues to provide a home for the Royal Holloway Collection - a Picture Gallery of Victorian art that was the final touch to Holloway's generous endowment.

In 1900, both Bedford and Royal Holloway were admitted as Schools of the University of London, when it was constituted as a teaching university. Today, the University of London is made up of 19 institutions and offers the widest range of higher education opportunities in Britain.

Both Bedford and Royal Holloway admitted male undergraduates for the first time in 1965, but their commitment to women's education remained. The 1982 partnership Agreement between the two colleges, signed as a result of severe cuts in government spending on higher education, paved the way for the merger in 1985. The newly merged Royal Holloway and Bedford New College was inaugurated in 1986 by Her Majesty The Queen as a ceremony in the College Chapel. The merger provided more academic diversity and strength as well as greater financial security. It also preserved the pursuit of innovation and excellence which characterised the Founders of the two parent colleges.

In 1992 the College Council, on the recommendation of a group established to look at the College identity, endorsed a proposal that the College should present itself under the shorter name Royal Holloway, University of London, but that the full name should be retained as the registered title. The adoption of Royal Holloway, University of London as the College's everyday title does not, however, mean that we have lost sight of the unique contribution made to education by Bedford College, and the Bedford heritage is commemorated in many ways, including the Bedford Library and the Bedford Centre for the History of Women.

The Celebration Year 2000 - marking the Bicentenary of Thomas Holloway's birth - provided an opportunity to look back to Royal Holloway's beginnings while focusing on future plans, to emphasize the themes of positive change, development and flexibility which have become a part of both Royal Holloway and Bedford Colleges' strengths and which will continue to provide a strong foundation for its continued success and growth.

College Royal Connections - visit our pictorial history devoted to the College's many encounters with royalty over the years. These web pages were developed in celebration of the Queen's Golden Jubilee in 2002.