Goldsmiths, University of London

"Goldsmiths" redirects here. For other uses, see Goldsmith (disambiguation).

Goldsmiths, University of London

File:Goldsmiths Crest.png
Type	Public
Established	1904, Constituent College of University of London 1891 – Goldsmiths' Technical and Recreative Institute
Endowment	£2.5 m (as of 31 July 2013)
Chancellor	HRH The Princess Royal (University of London)
Warden	Pat Loughrey
Students	10,147
Undergraduates	5,449
Postgraduates	4,698
Location	London , United Kingdom
Campus	Campus
Colours
Affiliations	University of London Association of Commonwealth Universities
Website	www.gold.ac.uk

Goldsmiths, University of London, is a public research university specializing in the arts, design, humanities, and social sciences. It is a constituent college within the University of London. It was founded in 1891 as Goldsmiths' Technical and Recreative Institute by the Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths in New Cross, London. It was acquired by the University of London in 1904 and was renamed Goldsmiths' College. The word College was dropped from its branding in 2006, but "Goldsmiths' College", with the apostrophe, remains the institution's formal legal name.

The university has a distinguished history of contributing to arts and social sciences. Its Department of Art is widely recognised as one of Britain's most prestigious, producing the YBA's art collective and over 20 Turner Prize nominees. Goldsmiths is also known for design, psychology, drama, sociology, music, politics, media and cultural studies, languages and literature, visual cultures, anthropology and educational studies.

Nearly 20% of students come from countries outside the UK, and 52% of all undergraduates are mature students (aged 21 or over at the start of their studies). Around a third of students at Goldsmiths are postgraduate students.

In the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise Goldsmiths came 9th in the UK for world-leading research (shown by the top 4* grade). The Department of Sociology performed particularly strongly, and was placed joint first with three other institutions. And in the Department of Media and Communications 80% of activity was in the highest two bands.

History

The Richard Hoggart Building

In 1891, the Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths, one of the City of London Livery Companies, founded Goldsmiths' Technical and Recreative Institute (more commonly referred to simply as the "Goldsmiths' Institute"). The Goldsmiths' Company was established in the 12th-century as a medieval guild for goldsmiths, silversmiths and jewellers; as such, the university is proud to remain connected with its original educational roots. The Livery Company dedicated the foundation of its new Institute to "the promotion of technical skill, knowledge, health and general well-being among men and women of the industrial, working and artisan classes". The original Institute was based in New Cross at the former Royal Naval School building. (This building, which was designed by the architect John Shaw Jr, is now known as the Richard Hoggart Building and remains the main building of the campus today.)

Goldsmiths College students at the University of Nottingham in 1944

In 1904, the Institute was merged with the University of London and was re-established as Goldsmiths' College. (The apostrophe was removed in a rebranding in 2006). At this point Goldsmiths' was the largest teacher training institution in the country. Training functions were later expanded to include refresher courses for teachers, the University Postgraduate Certificate in Education and an Art teacher's Certificate course. The College also ran its own Nursery School. Shortly after the merger, in 1907, Goldsmiths added a new Arts building, designed by Sir Reginald Blomfield, at the back of the main building. During the Second World War it was decided to evacuate the faculty and students of the College to University College, Nottingham, a decision which proved wise both at the time and in hindsight, since the main building was struck by an incendiary bomb and gutted in 1940 (and not finally repaired until 1947).

During the 1960s Goldsmiths attracted a rapid expansion in its number of students. It is during this period that Goldsmiths began to establish its reputation in the arts and social science fields, as well as offering a number of new teacher training qualifications. The original main building was expanded, and the Lockwood Building, Whitehead Building, Education Building, Warmington Tower and St James's Hall were all built during this period in order to accommodate the influx of new students. The university also acquired a number of historic buildings in the surrounding area, including the splendid former Deptford Town Hall and Laurie Grove Baths buildings. The Richard Hoggart Building, Deptford Town Hall and the Laurie Grove Baths all retain Grade II listed building status.

The Ben Pimlott Building

In 1988, Goldsmiths became a full College of the University of London and in 1990 received its Royal Charter. Among its wardens have been Richard Hoggart, Andrew Rutherford and Ben Pimlott. The current Warden is Pat Loughrey.

Campus and location

Deptford Town Hall Building

Goldsmiths is situated in New Cross, a highly populated area of south-east London with a considerable art and music scene. The area is well served by London Overground trains at New Cross and New Cross Gate. These former East London Line stations were integrated into the London Overground network in May 2010 with services northbound to Highbury and Islington; and southbound to Crystal Palace and West Croydon from New Cross Gate only. National Rail services still run from both New Cross and New Cross Gate stations to central London termini (i.e. London Bridge, Cannon Street and Charing Cross).

The main building, the Richard Hoggart Building, was originally designed as a school (opened in 1844) by the architect John Shaw, Jr (1803–1870). The former Deptford Townhall Building, designed by Henry Vaughan Lanchester and Edwin Alfred Rickards, acquired in 1998 and is now used for academic seminars and conferences. In addition to this Goldsmiths has built several more modern buildings to develop the campus, including the RIBA award-winning Rutherford Building completed in 1997, the Ben Pimlott Building designed by Will Alsop and completed in 2005, and the New Academic Building which was completed in 2010.

The library, or the Rutherford Building, has three floors and gives students access to an extensive range of printed and electronic resources. The third-floor library is believed to house the largest collection of audio-visual material in the UK. Goldsmiths' students, like all other students in the University of London, have full access to the collections at Senate House Library at Bloomsbury in central London.

The £10.2m, seven-storey Ben Pimlott Building on New Cross Road, complete with its distinctive "scribble in the sky" (made from 229 separate pieces of metal) has become a signature of modern Goldsmiths. It contains studio and teaching space for the Department of Art, as well as housing the Goldsmiths Digital Studios and the Centre for Cognition, Computation and Culture.

The New Academic Building, situated next to the green, is now home to the Media and Communications department and the Institute for Creative and Cultural Entrepreneurship (ICCE). Facilities include a new 250-seat lecture theatre, seminar and teaching rooms, as well as a cafe with outdoor seating.

Research and teaching

The Library

Faculties and departments

Goldsmiths is best known for courses and research relating to creativity and culture, and has a reputation for producing visual artists, particularly those collectively known as YBA. Its Art Department is widely recognised as one of Britain's most prestigious and culturally important, producing the YBA's art collective, 29 Turner Prize nominees, and 7 winners. This reputation was largely established by the influence of Michael Craig-Martin, Richard Wentworth, Jon Thompson, Anton Ehrenzweig and Nick De Ville as teaching staff. Alumni of the Department of Art include Mark Wallinger, Damien Hirst, Antony Gormley, Sam Taylor-Wood, Lucian Freud, Mary Quant, Bridget Riley, Sarah Lucas, Gary Hume, Steve McQueen, and Gillian Wearing.

Goldsmiths Visual Cultures Department continues to be innovative in dramatically expanding what might constitute the field of the visual and how we might engage with it. Key figures in the team include Irit Rogoff, Gavin Butt, Eyal Weizman and Kodwo Eshun.

Goldsmiths' Sociology Department has been extremely important in the recent development of the discipline in the UK and internationally, with leading sociologists such as Paul Gilroy, Bev Skeggs, Nikolas Rose, Celia Lury, Les Back, Kate Nash and Jeffrey Alexander, working in the department in recent years.

The Department of Design's unique and comprehensive approach to design practice grew from a concern for ethical and environmentalist design. This developed alongside research by John Wood, and others, which informs their research into metadesign. TERU, the Technology Education Research Unit, has been instrumental in understanding how design & technology works in schools, how to encourage learners towards creative interventions that improve the made world, and how to help teachers to support that process. The Writing Purposefully in Art and Design Network (Writing-PAD) has its main Centre at Goldsmiths. The Network now spans some 70 institutions across the art and design sector with 6 national and 2 International Writing PAD Centres.

Goldsmiths is well known for cultural studies. The Media and Communications Department, as well as the Centre for Cultural Studies, includes some of the leading scholars in this field including James Curran, Scott Lash, Angela McRobbie, Sara Ahmed, Nick Couldry, Aeron Davis, Sanjay Seth, and David Morley. Goldsmiths is consistently highly ranked by The Good University Guide as the top London education institute for the study of media, communications, music and visual arts.

The Department of Anthropology at Goldsmiths is considered to be one of the best in Europe. On the teaching staff are figures such as Stephen Nugent, Sophie Day, Catherine Alexander, Keith Hart and David Graeber, whose contract at Yale was not renewed in 2005 because of his political commitments. The Goldsmiths Anthropology Department is also well known for its focus on visual anthropology. The realm of continental philosophy is represented with academics such as Saul Newman, Alexander Düttmann and Jean Paul Martinon as well as Visiting Professors Andrew Benjamin and Bernard Stiegler. In the area of Psychology there is Chris French who specialises in the psychology of paranormal beliefs and experiences, cognition and emotion. Saul Newman - notable for developing the concept of post-anarchism - is currently leading the department of politics.

The English & Comparative Literature Department is one of the university's largest, and it covers English, comparative literature, American literature, creative writing and linguistics. Current academics include Bart Moore-Gilbert, Blake Morrison, Chris Baldick, Uttara Natarajan and Peter Dunwoodie. Its work in comparative literature developed after a welcome merger with the Department of European Languages, later joined by its highly successful Creative Writing section.

The Department of Music has a number of distinguished alumni, including Malcolm McLaren, Katy B, James Blake, Tunday Akintan, Rosie Lowe, and John Cale. The Research Centre for Russian Music, director Alexander Ivashkin, is internationally renowned for its archives devoted to Prokofiev and Schnittke, and unique collections including of music by Stravinsky, and Russian Piano Music first editions.

The Department of Educational Studies is well known for research and teaching around themes of cultural diversity, language and learning, and art and learning. Its leading researchers include Dennis Atkinson, Eve Gregory, Rosalyn George, Ken Jones and Carrie Paechter. It teaches undergraduate, masters and doctoral courses, and is home to a large programme of initial teacher education (primary and secondary), based on partnership arrangements with over 1500 schools and colleges.

Rankings

Rankings

National rankings
Complete (2025)	49
Guardian (2025)	50
Times / Sunday Times (2025)	50
Global rankings
QS (2025)	501-550

League tables based on the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise all place Goldsmiths within the top 35 research-intensive universities in the UK: 33rd in the Times Higher Education, 34th in The Guardian and 24th in The Independent. The 2008 RAE placed Goldsmiths 9th in the UK overall for the world-leading quality of its research.

In the University guide 2011 by The Guardian, the Anthropology Department of Goldsmiths was ranked as 3rd in UK, following Oxford and Cambridge. Goldsmiths Also stands 7th in the University guide 2014 league table for Art and Design by The Guardian. The Complete University Guide has placed Goldsmiths, University of London in the UK’s top 10 universities in two subject areas in 2014. The Department of Art and the Department of Design came in the top 10 of the Art & Design subject table, and the Department of Media and Communications came in the top 10 in the Communication & Media Studies table.

In April 2015 Goldsmiths' media and communications department was named the second best in the UK and twenty-second world-wide.

Student life

Sports, clubs and traditions

Sports teams and societies are organised by the Goldsmiths Students' Union. The Union runs 18 sports clubs, 11 of which compete in either University of London Union or BUCS leagues. In May 2011 Goldsmiths won the Arts Varsity Challenge Cup against University of the Arts London (UAL), for the third year running.

The Students' Union runs 35 societies, ranging from political societies and identity-based societies (for example the Jewish society and the LGBT society) to interest-based societies (the Film Society and the on-campus radio station Wired are the two largest Societies) and more. An amateur opera company based in the university, Opera Gold, draws its cast from Goldsmiths members past and present.

Goldsmiths regularly features in lists compiled by the Brand Council of the UK as one of the world's "Coolest Brands", something which the Warden and Fellows like to play down.

Student Media

Goldsmiths has a long-standing history of student-led media platforms. Smiths Magazine (Smiths), The Leopard newspaper, and Wired Radio (Wired). The student media is run independently by students at the college.

Student housing

The university owns 7 halls of residence which offer accommodation for students:

• Batavia Mews
• Chesterman House
• Dean House
• Loring Hall
• Surrey House
• Surrey House Annexe
• Raymont Hall

Several of the halls include electricity bills and gas bills as part of rent. Free internet is also offered in some of the halls. Visiting international students are generally assigned accommodation in Loring Hall, Dean House or Chesterman House. Loring Hall currently holds around 400 students.

Students' Union

Main article: Goldsmiths Students' Union

The union provides, among other things, catering facilities, a chaplaincy, a medical clinic, an advice service on academic and welfare issues, and a state of the art gym for students' use.

The Students' Union "Stretch" Bar, which links across Dixon Road from the Richard Hoggart Building, hosts numerous entertainment events including Quidz pub quiz on Mondays, Open Mic Night, Film Club Night where a themed film serial is aired in the huge pull down screen in the SU, and the 'Club Sandwich' club night open between 10 pm and 3 am on Wednesdays. The SU also provides a walk-home and special night bus service for students who live in the borough. The Stretch has several 40 inch High Definition LCD screens, and shows the latest music videos and news, football is also shown on some nights.

Politically, the Students' Union has taken an increasingly activist stance in recent years, campaigning on "cuts" to university arts and humanities budgets, tuition fee increases, and Palestine. In 2010/11 the Union ran a successful Save the Nursery campaign, after the warden announced plans to close the Goldsmiths nursery services. Between October and December 2010, students active in the Students' Union organized several sit-ins ("occupations") in university buildings, protesting against proposed increase in tuition fees and cuts to higher education budgets.

In October 2014, the union faced critical coverage, from student newspaper The Tab after voting down a proposal to commemorate Holocaust Memorial Day, with Education Officer Sarah El-alfy describing it as "Eurocentric" and "colonialist." El-alfy offered to help put forward a redrafted version of the motion for the following Student Assembly meeting. The Union issued a statement claiming "Redrafting motions and re-entering them at a later date isn’t unusual in Students’ Unions and shouldn’t be misinterpreted as opposition."

In 2015 the student union Welfare and Diversity Officer, Bahar Mustafa, caused a public controversy by banning white people and men from a student union event. Bahar Mustafa caused more public controversy through her justification of the ban, and through her use of the hash tag #KillAllWhiteMen. A group of students petitioned for a vote of no confidence in her, but the petition was signed by less than 3% of the student body and therefore failed to trigger a referendum.

Notable alumni

Main article: List of Goldsmiths College alumni

Goldsmiths' alumni have been influential in the fields of art, design, visual arts, film, journalism, literature, theatre, music, politics, history, and sport.

See also

• E-scape

External links

• The official Goldsmiths website
• The official Goldsmiths Students' Union website
• 'Smiths' magazine website
• Goldsmiths MA Programme in Social Entrepreneurship
• 'The Leopard' newspaper website
• Goldsmiths, University of London lists of students
• Goldsmiths, University of London military personnel,1914–1918