Founded | 1917 |
---|---|
Founder | Mary Trevelyan |
Type | Accommodation and related assistance to study |
Focus | Education and international collaboration |
Location |
|
Area served | Worldwide |
Website | www.ish.org.uk |
International Students House, London (colloquially shortened to ISH) is a set of lodgings for international and British students in London. [1] It permanently occupies one large building in streets that faces Park Crescent which in turn across a square green faces the park itself.
It operates as a financially self-supporting registered charity under a board of trustees. [2]
Approximately ten students apply for every place. Selection is distinct from that of London's colleges and universities where selection must also be gained. It is on the basis of a student's "demonstrated willingness to participate and become involved in the life of the House." [3] Each year, the House admits Fulbright scholars and students attending places of advanced learning including King's College London, LSE, Imperial College London, UCL, SOAS, London Business School, The Royal Academy of Music, RADA, Goldsmiths, The Architectural Association School of Architecture and BPP Law School, among others.
Annually, the House, together with its partners, awards residential scholarships of over £800,000. ISH also has 70,000 non-resident members, which makes up a large proportion of the international students in London. [4]
Student Movement House at 32 Russell Square (in the Bloomsbury district of London), was founded in 1917 as a social centre and hostel by the Student Christian Movement of Great Britain and Ireland. The House was founded with legacies from three of its members who had been killed in World War I, and it was dedicated on 26 November 1917 as a memorial to British students who died in the war. [5] The House was founded with the original intention of creating accommodation for Belgian and Russian refugee students but became a centre used by students of all countries. [6]
The House served as an important space for Bloomsbury's Black population during the interwar period and was well-known as a place where African and West Indian students would not experience discrimination. [7] [8] In 1932, C.L.R. James described Student Movement House as "a club for London students, white and coloured, but with its chief aim giving coloured students in London the opportunity to meet together". [9]
Mary Trevelyan was appointed as Warden in 1933 and in 1938, the House relocated to Gower Street. [10] [11] [12] The Gower Street building was left intact but leaning due to bombing in the London Blitz. [13]
The first building at 1–6 Park Crescent (known as GPS because of its entrance at 229 Great Portland Street) was acquired and rebuilt. It was opened in May 1965 by the Trust's Patron, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother. In 1968, a series of buildings designed by John Nash on York Terrace East also in the South Regent's Park neighbourhood (seven minutes walk from GPS) were acquired and rebuilt. They were subsequently named Mary Trevelyan Hall and opened in 1971. The House also built an underground garage in York Terrace East as part of the development.
These four buildings combine to make up International Students House, providing over 700 beds (including 56 flats for students with families), three bars, a restaurant, internet access points, a fitness centre and public meeting rooms. [14]
In 1985, the original Trust was separated into two sister charities, operating in parallel, with the International Students Trust managing the investment portfolios and International Students House owning and operating the residences and the activities.
As of 2010, ISH students represent more than 110 nations, and ISH has over 70,000 non-resident student members.
ISH accepts UK students as well as international students to live or participate. The four main areas of operation are housing, provision of social facilities and activities, welfare and advice support and the provision of residential scholarships which together with the House's partners represents a £800,000 plus annual programme which received a Commendation in The Charity Awards 2002.
The House operates as a financially self-supporting charity with a diverse number of self generated income streams. The House employs a total of around 130 staff who between them can speak at least 20 languages. ISH has been a recognised "Investor in People" since 1997, achieved "Customer First" recognition in 2009 and most recently obtained the Investor in People Gold Award in December 2011. [15]
University College London, which operates as UCL, is a public research university in London, England. It is a member institution of the federal University of London, and is the second-largest university in the United Kingdom by total enrolment and the largest by postgraduate enrolment.
Bloomsbury is a district in the West End of London, England. It is considered a fashionable residential area, and is the location of numerous cultural, intellectual, and educational institutions.
SOAS University of London is a public research university in London, England, and a member institution of the federal University of London. Founded in 1916, SOAS is located in the Bloomsbury area of central London.
Lady Ottoline Violet Anne Morrell was an English aristocrat and society hostess. Her patronage was influential in artistic and intellectual circles, where she befriended writers including Aldous Huxley, Siegfried Sassoon, T. S. Eliot and D. H. Lawrence, and artists including Mark Gertler, Dora Carrington and Gilbert Spencer.
Fitzrovia is a district of central London, England, near the West End. The eastern part of area is in the London Borough of Camden, and the western in the City of Westminster. It has its roots in the Manor of Tottenham Court, and was urbanised in the 18th century. Its name was coined in the late 1930s by Tom Driberg.
Russell Square is a large garden square in Bloomsbury, in the London Borough of Camden, built predominantly by the firm of James Burton. It is near the University of London's main buildings and the British Museum. Almost exactly square, to the north is Woburn Place and to the south-east is Southampton Row. Russell Square tube station sits to the north-east.
Bloomsbury Square is a garden square in Bloomsbury, in the London Borough of Camden, London. Developed in the late 17th century, it was initially known as Southampton Square and was one of the earliest London squares. By the early 19th century, Bedford House along the north of the square had been demolished and replaced with terraced housing designed by James Burton.
Malet Street is a street in Bloomsbury, in the London Borough of Camden, Central London, England. It runs between Torrington Place and the British Museum, parallel to Gower Street and Tottenham Court Road.
Universities and Colleges Christian Fellowship is a UK-based charity that was founded in 1928 as the Inter-Varsity Fellowship of Evangelical Unions. UCCF's dual aims are:
Gower Street is a two-way street in Bloomsbury, central London, running from Euston Road at the north to Montague Place in the south. The street is continued from North Gower Street north of Euston Road. To the south, it becomes Bloomsbury Street.
Blind Veterans UK, formerly St Dunstan's, is a large British charity, providing free support and services to vision-impaired ex-servicemen and women and National Service personnel. Blind Veterans UK is a registered charity in England and Scotland and operates throughout the United Kingdom. It has its head office in London and centres in Brighton and Llandudno.
Filming periodically takes place at University College London. The university tends to be chosen as a location for film and television recording because of its convenient position within London and the historical character of the UCL Main Building and Front Quad. Film and TV appearances include:
The Bedford Estate is an estate in central London owned by the Russell family, which holds the peerage title of Duke of Bedford. The estate was originally based in Covent Garden, then stretched to include Bloomsbury in 1669. The Covent Garden property was sold for £2 million in 1913 by Herbrand Russell, 11th Duke of Bedford, to the MP and land speculator Harry Mallaby-Deeley, who sold his option to the Beecham family for £250,000; the sale was finalised in 1918.
The UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology is an institute within the Faculty of Brain Sciences of University College London (UCL) and is located in London, United Kingdom. Together with the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery, an adjacent facility with which it cooperates closely, the institute forms a major centre for teaching, training and research in neurology and allied clinical and basic neurosciences.
The House of St Barnabas, at 1 Greek Street, Soho, is a Grade I Listed Georgian building in London notable for its rococo plasterwork interiors and for other architectural features.
This is a list of the halls of residence at University College London in London, England.
Mary Trevelyan was warden of the Student Movement House then founder and governor of International Students House, London, and founder of the Goats Club for foreign students. Through most of her working life, Mary Trevelyan worked to solve the problems of overseas students in London, to help them establish the best possible memory of Britain and the British people, and to promote international friendship amongst these students which could be continued even after they left Britain. Trevelyan was appointed as both an OBE and later promoted to CBE. She died in Newbury, on 10 January 1983 after a long illness.
This is a list of the etymology of street names in the London district of Bloomsbury. The following utilises the generally accepted boundaries of Bloomsbury viz. Euston Road to the north, Gray's Inn Road to the east, New Oxford Street, High Holborn, Southampton Row and Theobald's Road to the south and Tottenham Court Road to the west.
Margaret Sewell (1852–1937) was an English educator who was Warden of the Women's University Settlement. She was a pioneer advocate of social work.