History of Birkbeck, University of London

Birkbeck College, can trace their origins to a mechanics’ institute in Glasgow as far back as 1800.

Almost 2,000 people flocked to the Crown & Anchor Tavern on the Strand to witness its launch.

Dr. George Birkbeck was born in Yorkshire but he worked for a time in Glasgow, where his lectures to working men led to the foundation in 1821 of one of the first Mechanics Institutes. In 1823, he founded a similar Institute in London.

In 1907, the London Mechanics’ Institute eventually in 1907 became Birkbeck College. In 1920 Birkbeck College was recognized as a constituent college of London University for both part-time and evening students.

The Institute can be found today just off London’s Gower Street where it continues its tradition of public education under the name of Birkbeck College as part of the University of London.
History of Birkbeck, University of London

History of St. John College, Cambridge

St John’s College, Cambridge, founded in 1511 owed is existence to Bishop John Fisher and Lady Margaret Beaufort, is one of the largest colleges in the University and is home to one of Cambridge’s famous landmarks, the Bridge of Sighs.

At the time of its foundation it took over the buildings and property and many of the duties of an earlier and then a venerable foundation, that of the Hospital of St. John the Evangelist in Cambridge. The hospital was dissolved and replaced by the college which inherited its possessions, and the hospital’s cartulary, with a large collection of deeds relating to its lands, remains in the archives of the colleges.

The origin of the old house is obscure, and its earlier history lost, but it seems to have been founded about 1135 by Henry Frost, a burgess of Cambridge.

Lady Margaret Beaufort support for Cambridge began in 1505, when she re-founded God’s House as Christ’s College and it lasted until 1509, when she died.

St. John’s College, which was largely the work of Bishop Fisher, was posthumously created in 1511 in her honor. The college full name is ‘The Master, Fellows and Scholars of the College of St. John the Evangelist on the University of Cambridge'.
History of St. John College, Cambridge