Our history
Queen Mary has a long, proud and distinctive history built on four historic institutions stretching back to 1785 and beyond.
Our founding institutions are: St Bartholomew’s Hospital Medical College, London Hospital Medical College, Westfield College and Queen Mary College.
All four institutions were founded to improve the lives of people with less privilege. St Bartholomew’s Hospital Medical College and The London Hospital Medical College were established to improve the health of the local communities in the City and east London. Westfield College and Queen Mary College provided education to women and working class communities in the East End, respectively, at a time when these groups faced extreme barriers to education.
Timeline of key events and achievements in Queen Mary's history
St Bartholomew’s Hospital is founded to help the poor of West Smithfield in the suburbs of the City of London.
1123
The London Hospital, known as the London Infirmary, is founded to help poor communities living in London’s East End. Although it isn’t officially recognised, medical education takes place.
1740
1785
1791
Sir James Paget, English surgeon and one of the founders of scientific medical pathology, enrolls as a student at St. Bartholomew’s Medical School.
1834
St Bartholomew’s Hospital Medical College is established.
1843
Elizabeth Blackwell enrols for classes at St Bartholomew's Hospital Medical College. She goes on to become was the first woman to get a medical degree in the US, and a champion of medical education for women.
1850
Elizabeth Gordon Manson became Matron of St Bartholomew's Hospital. She is a pioneer for the nursing profession, who established the British Nurses’ Association and the International Council of Nurses.
1881
1882
The People’s Palace Technical Schools are opened by Queen Victoria. Offering evening classes, a library, reading rooms and social activities, it provides education to people from all backgrounds and promotes diversity as “a place where people of all classes and conditions congregate”.*
1887
The People’s Palace Technical Schools become East London Technical College, providing day and evening classes in a range of subjects, including engineering and physics. It also prepares students for entry into the Civil Service and for University of London exams.
1896
East London Technical College become East London College and has a new aim: to promote higher education in East London.
1905
The Dental School at the London Hospital opens.
1911
Pao Swen Tseng is the first Chinese student to graduate from the University of London, having studied botany under one of Westfield College’s visionary academics, Dr Ellen Delf-Smith.
1916
1934
1937
The School of Law is established.
1965
Queen Mary receives its first Computer and begins teaching Computer Science.
1968
Professor Sir Roy Goode sets up the UK’s first Centre for Commercial Law Studies to create an environment where practising commercial lawyers and those from academia could meet and exchange ideas.
1980
Queen Mary College’s new library is opened by Her Late Majesty Queen Elizabeth II
1988
1989
1992
Queen Mary and Westfield College merge with Bart’s and the Royal London School of Medicine and Dentistry.
1995
2000
Queen Mary starts to offer a joint degree programme with Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications, one of China's top engineering universities. This is the first programme of its kind to be approved by China’s Ministry of Education.
2004
Nobel Prize Winner, Harold Pinter, gives a public reading to mark the refurbishment of the studio named for him within the Faculty of Arts.
2005
2009
Queen Mary becomes one of the 24 leading UK universities who make up the prestigious Russell Group.
2012
