2019 marks 100 years of academic life at Highfield Campus.
In 1919, University College of Southampton, as we were known at the time, moved to Highfield from its original location at the Hartley Institution in the city’s High Street, below the Bargate.
Read more about the past 100 years at Highfield Campus
Images: Then and now – the wings of the Hartley Library were the first academic buildings on campus. They have changed little on the exterior since 1919
The first academic year at Highfield began five years later than originally intended. The delay was caused by the outbreak of World War One just six weeks after the opening of the new academic buildings at Highfield in 1914. The College authorities offered the campus to the War Office for use as a hospital.
For the duration of the war, the College returned to its old home at the Hartley Institution in the High Street, and it wasn’t until 1919 that we were able to take up permanent residence at Highfield.
Students took up their courses here at the start of the 1919 – 1920 academic year and in celebration of this major anniversary, our new teaching and learning building is to be named the ‘Centenary Building’.
Learn more about the University’s history
