By Emeritus Professor, Mike Bury
Bedford College was blessed with some lovely settings for its educational mission. The main site on the Inner circle of Regent’s Park was complemented by several rather grand villas nearby, housing various academic departments.
I joined the College in 1979, to work with Professor Margot Jefferys in the Social Research Unit, and teach on the Master’s degree in Sociology as Applied to Medicine. Our offices, though, were some distance from the Inner Circle. Having begun life in Peto Place, the Social Research Unit had moved to 51 Harley Street, where I joined it. I found the address somewhat amusing, to say the least. Medical sociology being taught whilst overlooking the famous private medicine thoroughfare!
At first I couldn’t fathom what we were doing there, though I was told we had the premises (all but the ground floor) on a ‘peppercorn rent’. I then realised why. The ground floor was even more suspect than we were - it was the headquarters of the Anti-Vivisection League. No wonder the medics had little interest in the building. My abiding memory is what you might call an ‘unobtrusive measure‘ of the popularity of the two sets of activities in the building: the morning post bag. A huge sack of letters for the League and a small bundle for the Unit.
After a couple of years the Unit moved to a building much closer to the College. This was Fraser’s Lodge, an outbuilding set in what is sometimes called London’s best kept secret, St John’s Lodge Gardens (pictured below), set just across the road from the main Queen Mary’s Gardens. St John’s Lodge Gardens are a gem - a haven of peace in a busy London Park.
Photo credit: Jacqueline Banerjee, PhD, Associate Editor, the Victorian Web
Fraser’s Lodge had been an RAF mortuary during the 2nd World War and was a rather mixed bag in terms of (refurbished) office space. There were two well-appointed large offices and a set of less than salubrious smaller ones. These latter were rather airless affairs, but they did mean that teaching and research staff could all be housed together. Needless to say the two directors of the Unit, Margot and George Brown bagged the two large rooms before the rest of us moved in! But I enjoyed my time there, and have fond memories of feeding the birds, when Margot and I would take our lunch out into the garden itself.
Following Margot’s retirement the Unit finally moved to 11 Bedford Sq, where it continued to teach the MSc, until in 1988 it finally moved to the main site of Royal Holloway at Egham.
Do you have memories of your time at Bedford College to share in the next newsletter? Please send your contribution to alumni@rhbnc.ac.uk.
