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CAMPUS NEWS
Hawkshead: 60 years of the Main Clinical Block
“We hardly think it necessary that the College should own a farm” (RVC Council minutes, 1922)
In the archives of the Hawkshead Campus there is a letter. It isn’t much to look at. Eight small, thin sheets
of yellowed paper, one tarnished
paperclip and a few hundred neatly typed words. But its impact has been felt across the RVC for the past 65 years.
In the early years of the 20th Century, London was growing at an incredible rate. The once rural setting of the Hobday Building had been overtaken by the vast sprawl of North London, which already extended beyond Hampstead.
Reduced access to local livestock and with a more urban student intake, some members of the College began to consider setting up a field station outside of the capital. This wasn’t initially a popular proposal and Council minutes from 1922 recorded: “We hardly think it necessary that the College should own a farm”.
An enforced sojourn to Streatley during the 1940s convinced many that this was a viable proposal, but Streatley, while popular with the staff based there, was unsuitable for expansion and a search began for a better site.
Attention first turned to Hawkshead, then to Wye College,
Wheathampstead, Virginia Water, Bracknell, and Maidenhead, before
finally settling on Hawkshead.
The 2nd March 1954 had got off to a decidedly chilly start. There had been a frost overnight and freezing sleet still fell. James
Buxton, Principal of the RVC at the time, had a letter to write.
A letter that would change the course of the College forever.
His letter was addressed to one J R Stewart of the
University of London Grants Committee. His
request was a bold one
– £100,000 to purchase
and equip the Hawkshead and Boltons Park estates – a considerable sum at a time when £2,000 could buy you a family home. His proposal included £6,000 to refurbish and furnish Hawkshead House with a library, refectory and accommodation for students and house surgeons, as well as a further £7,500 for scientific equipment.
And so, with the blessing of the University of London, the current site was purchased on 8th February 1955. At that time, the estate possessed little by the way of facilities – 400 acres of fields, a large Victorian farm house and a handful of agricultural outbuildings – but work soon began to provide suitable accommodation for the College staff.
The first significant development, the Main Clinical Block (MCB), was officially opened by the Queen in April 1959. For 30 years, the MCB was the very heart of the campus, housing all the necessary surgical, research and administrative functions.
The years passed, and the Clinical Block grew and evolved to meet the changing needs of the community. The 1960s saw the construction of a medical extension, and with increased research endeavour, the common room and operating theatre were converted into laboratories. But as the campus expanded, specialist scientific and clinical functions began moving out to newer buildings and the importance of the MCB began to decline; a victim of its own
With
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(above) James “Jimmy” Buxton, Principal RVC 1937-1954 at Streatley, Berks and his letter to UoL The Clinical Block c. 1960 (left) and 1990 (right)
The old operating theatre in the Clinical Block
