RNA Conference 2024 at Royal Holloway College

My Monday Catch up!

Royal Holloway College

Having spent a fantastic 3.5 days at Royal Holloway College, Egham, Surrey, here are some of the research details I should probably have been posting before I went!

The college was bankrolled by the Victorian entrepreneur Thomas Holloway who made his fortune from the sales of pills, potions and patented medicines. During its conception, he sought ideas via public debate on how to spend a quarter of a million pounds on something philanthropic. It was his wife Jane who suggested that he should spend that lovely money on a college for women, quite a novel idea as it was still difficult for a woman to enter into any kind of full-time university studies during this era.

Thomas and Jane Holloway

Deciding to go with Jane's suggestion, Holloway later increased his financial commitment to half a million pounds, a ginormous sum in the late 1870s. Having acquired the land, the Mount Lee Estate covering some 135 acres, he commissioned the architect William Henry Crossland to make the project a reality.

Crossland set to and produced the most incredible edifice now named the Founders Building, designed as an original 600-bed building, the inspiration said to have come from the Château de Chambord in the Loire Valley, France.

Chateau de Chambord - Wikimedia Commons

Founders Building - Royal Holloway College

The two images above are for comparison. My Holloway photo doesn't show the similarity of rounded towers and turrets that Crossland included, but you do see them more effectively in this photo below.

 

A Grade 1 listed building, the Founders Building acquired Royal status when Queen Victoria officially opened the building in 1886.

Queen Victoria in the interior Quadrangle

Around that time the Chapel was also completed. It’s not large but is highly opulent.

The Chapel - Royal Holloway College

It must have been such an incredibly exciting moment for its original 28 female students when they began their studies in October 1887.

The campus area is what I’d tactfully term lightly-managed woodland but that’s very appropriate in today’s ecologically-aware world. It would have been equally impressive in former years when it was created and probably more micro-manicured. There are tranquil little pond areas, and a wealth of different trees and shrubs all accessible via a winding series of interconnecting pathways. I found it slightly hard to decide what the whole estate might have been like, before the modern student halls of residence, lecture theatres, and teaching buildings were in situ, but I’m guessing just a lot more of the same that is seen today in the landscaped areas.

It took about fifteen minutes for the taxi to take me from Heathrow Airport to Royal Holloway College so, give or take that ‘Greater London’ is massive geographically, it’s a very convenient place for conference attendees who fly in to Heathrow from far-flung places. For me it was a flight of about 1.5 hours, so it was very easy to get to the venue.

All of our conference dining took place in the Dining Hall within the Founders Building - striking rooms with beautiful décor, especially the ‘atrium?’ which led out to the terraced area set above the interior quadrangle. The photo below is acquired from the RNA attendees Facebook page, a view of the Dining Hall during our Quiz Night last Friday. I'm at the table on the bottom right, quite clearly not having a clue of the answer to the set question! 

Dining Hall Royal Holloway College 

I had no opportunity to visit the Library which, I read, has a massive collection of fabulous books. However, I did have a very brief visit to the Picture Gallery for the Romantic Novelists’ Association Awards Ceremony. It’s a cliché to say my jaw dropped when I went along the aisle to take my seat! There’s a priceless collection in that incredible room. (The original two collection sources being  Holloway himself and a female artist named Christiana Herringham)

The Princes in the Tower- Millais

Princess Elizabeth in Prison at St. James
- Millais

There are some very famous paintings in the collection which I immediately recognised: Sir John Everett Millais' The Princes in the Tower (1878), William Powell Frith's The Railway Station (1862).  Edwin Long's Babylonian Marriage Market (1875). On seeing them, it brought back memories of my Art History topics when studying the Victorian Era during my Open University BA Degree back in 1987-1990. I was extremely disappointed that I couldn’t linger to admire the paintings after the Awards Ceremony but our presence was demanded outside in the quadrangle since the servers were ready with our special Barbeque food.

All in all, the choice of venue for the Romantic Novelists’ Association Conference for 2024 was an excellent one. I also thank the committee for the organisation of the whole weekend which was thoroughly enjoyable, convivial and…inspirational.

I must now get on with the writing of Book 2 of my Victorian Scotland series!

Slainte!