Keswick Hall and Quintin Gurney

In 1948 an advance party of two lecturers and 45 students moved into Keswick Hall with a minimum of furniture and 60 builders still at work. For the next two years the College existed inconveniently in two halves some three miles apart, in the orignial (damaged) buildings (see WW2 article) and in Mr Q.E.Gurney's former property, Keswick Hall, a Regency house south of the city.

Building at Keswick continued with hostel blocks, kitchens, lecture rooms etc. and in September 1961 the college became co-educational. East Wing (click on photo below) was official opened by H.M. Queen Elizabeth (the Queen Mother) on 24th April 1951. Miss Duff (principal), the Bishop of Norwich and Quintin Gurney (the former owner of the property) were all on hand to show her around. Mr Gurney (Chair of the Governing Body) was a member of the Gurney Bank family, later incorporated into Barclays bank. The last chair of governors, Rosemary Murrary wrote, "...there can have been few Colleges of Education better housed on a more attractive site. the college owed much to Mr. Quintin Gurney...who after the War made the house and park available to the college, and continued to act as a generous benefactor."

One of those first students in 1948 has written:
"......in retropsect the sun was always shining as we bicycled along the Ipswich Road; Keswick was always beautiful with flowers and squirrels and the song of a thousand birds, and back in College Road there was the warm familiarity about the huts and the hostels, so small and yet magnificently indestructible."

(based on: 1839-1981, The story of Keswick Hall; Jack Bull)

click in the picture below for a recent view of the formerEast Wing