Forever:Keele

Stay in touch with each other and with us

Alumni and Support Keele pages

Alumni

Explore this Section

Names of Keele Buildings

Names really matter - and the names of our buildings carry a great signficance for Keele.

There are a few buildings and rooms, including lecture theatres, that are named after benefactors and donors but most are named after people with special associations with Keele, the locality or the founding ideals of the University....

Photo left: Old and New - a classic view of the Walter Moberly Hall (left), Tawney Building (beyond) and The Huts (everywhere!) from the Library roof

Keele Hall

The first Keele Hall was built in 1580 to provide a home for the Sneyd family, who owned the Keele estate continuously from 1544 to 1949. The present Keele Hall was completed in 1860 as a family home and was embellished with symbols of the family’s aristocratic lineage. It was designed by Anthony Salvin, a renowned Victorian architect who also worked on the royal residence at Windsor castle and the Tower of London. The most famous occupant was Grand Duke Michael of Russia, cousin of the Tsar. He welcomed King Edward VII to Keele - the first visit by a reigning monarch. During the Second World War Keele housed British and American troops. Their temporary barracks and Keele Hall became the first buildings of the new University College of North Staffordshire in 1950.
Image right: Keele Hall in a postcard by W Shaw's of Burslem (c. 1905)

Sir David Weatherall Building

Sir David Weatherall is a former Chancellor of Keele University. He succeeded Lord Moser in 2002 and held office until 2012. Sir David made a considerable and significant contribution to Keele, including presiding over the graduation of the first students to graduate from the School of Medicine – a subject close to his heart. Sir David is one of the outstanding British clinician scientists of his generation. He is an accomplished pioneering researcher in molecular genetics, haematology, pathology and clinical medicine. He was Regius Professor of Medicine at the University of Oxford, 1992-2000, and is now Emeritus Regius Professor. In 1989, Sir David founded the Weatherall Institute of Molecular Medicine at Oxford University to foster research in molecular and cell biology with direct application to the study of human disease. Sir David is also co-author of the Oxford Text Book of Medicine.

Walter Moberly Building

Walter Moberly (1881-1974) was a British academic who, as Chairman of the University Grants Committee, played a significant role in the creation of the institution that later became Keele University. Before World War I, Moberly began his academic career as a lecturer in political science at the University of Aberdeen. Having served with distinction in the Great War, he joined the University of Birmingham as Professor of Philosophy. He later became Principal of the University College of the South West of England and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Manchester, before joining the University Grants Committee in 1935. Moberly was hugely supportive of Lord Lindsay’s experimental vision for a new kind of university, enabling Lindsay to found the University College of North Staffordshire in 1950 – which later became Keele University in 1962. Walter Moberly Hall Interior This building was originally opened as the Conference Hall, the venue for lectures, plays, concerts and many other events requiring a large auditorium. It was converted into offices and teaching spaces and renamed the Walter Moberly Building during the 1980s.

Photos of Walter Moberly Hall exterior (above right) and interior (left) by John Gillis (Class of 1962)

William Smith Building

This building is named after not one, but two William Smiths, both of whom were influential in the development of mapping.
William Smith (1546?-1618) laid the foundations of the conventions of county mapping and of urban cartography. Smith was an antiquarian and Rouge Dragon at the College of Heralds whose work, ‘The Particuler Description of England. With the portratures of certaine of the cheiffest citties and townes’, made an important contribution to cartography of the time.
William Smith (1769-1839) is credited with creating the first nationwide geological map. While working as a miner, Smith noted the patterns in strata of rock, leading to a lifelong fascination. He developed a way of displaying the horizontal extent of rocks, which eventually led to his ‘Map that Changed the World’.

The Clock House

Clock House Vintage Photo The Clock House was built in the early 1830s to provide stables, carriage stores and residences for the coachman and head gardener. A new road was built through a Romantic landscaped Gorge. A new drive led southwest past Keele Park Racecourse opened by Col Ralph Sneyd in 1899. Sneyd converted the block into breeding stables for racehorses until Keele Park folded in 1906. In the 1920s he converted the residences to provide lodgings during his infrequent visits. On 28th October 1970 about 300 students carried out a bizarre protest at the Clock House. They surrounded and attempted to levitate the building 300 feet into the air by psychic power and the force of their “spiritual unity”. In those heady days some averred that they managed to raise the building “about six feet, give or take six feet.” The building now houses the Music School and the Vice-Chancellor's residence.

Photo right: The Clock House in a vintage photo

Colin Reeves Building

Professor Colin Reeves is a former Head of Computer Science at Keele, who was a prominent figure at the University throughout the 70s and 80s.
Colin was Keele’s first Professor of Computer Science, following a career in the chemical industry and a spell as a programmer on one of the first industrial computers. He has a long association with the British Computer Society, rising to become a moderator and then Chairman of the BCS Examinations Board. Through his influential work in curriculum design, he was asked to work with the Universities Grants Commission of Sri Lanka and recommend a plan to introduce computing into the university system. As a result of the Reeves Report, Colin was able to initiate Keele’s longstanding relationship with Sri Lanka.

Claus Moser Research Centre

Lord Moser was Keele’s second Chancellor, who held the office between 1986 and 2002. Claus Moser is a statistician who has made major contributions in academic life and in the Civil Service. His academic career was spent at the London School of Economics, where he had been a student. He held a variety of posts at LSE and was awarded a Chair in Social Statistics in 1961. In 1967, Harold Wilson appointed him Director of the Central Statistical Office, a post he held until 1978. He was made a Knight Commander of the Bath in 1973 and a Life peer with the title, Baron Moser of Regents Park, in 2001. He has a wide variety of other honours to his name, from Britain, France and his native Germany.

Science Learning Centre

In 2004 Keele University was selected to be part of the £51m initiative by the Department for Education and Skills and the Wellcome Trust to create a national network of Science Learning Centres. The Science Learning Centre West Midlands is one of nine regional centres across the country, providing professional development opportunities to all science educators in the region. The aim is to bring "cutting edge science" from higher education and industry to the classroom and to increase innovation and creativity in ways that will revitalise science education in the West Midlands. The building was officially opened by the Minister of State for Higher Education and Lifelong Learning, Bill Rammell, in October 2005.

Sports Centre

Sports 1950 When the University College of North Staffordshire opened in 1950 no sporting facilities existed. The Director of Sport Hank Haley was not deterred and demanded that all students must participate in a recognised sport. An Athletic Union was formed and students improvised or borrowed neighbouring facilities. The refectory (now Keele Hall Ballroom) once hosted a major fencing tournament and long corridors in the Chemistry Block were equipped with hurdles to enable a promising athlete to train. Haley’s vision was fulfilled in 1964 when the Sports Centre was opened. The building has been extended and adapted continually to provide training and competitive areas for many sports.

Photo right: Sports 1950s-style - no sports building but keen pioneer students and atheletes Dion Webb (1957), Keith Clement (1956) and Stuart Milner (1957) make the most of heir talent!

Students’ Union Building

The Students’ Union first occupied a Nissen Hut left over from the military occupation of Keele during the Second World War. The present building was opened in 1962 by Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother and Princess Margaret, President and Chancellor of the University (1956-1986). It revelled in its progressive 1960s architectural style; its wide open interiors were decked in white pine and an open staircase bisected the building. The exterior was described as resembling a Mississippi steamboat. It was originally intended to be the first of two identical buildings side-by-side “like a catamaran” but the second building never materialised. An extension was added in the 1970s and the interior re-modelled during 2011-2012.

Photo left: New Union Building by Graham Fisher (Class of 1965)

Darwin Building

The Darwin Building was opened by Sir Roy Griffiths in December 1992. It was the second stage of Keele's Science Park development after the Stephenson Building. Naturalist Charles Darwin was a frequent visitor to North Staffordshire and married his cousin Emma Wedgwood at St Peter’s Church in nearby Maer on 29 January 1839. His early thoughts on earthworms evolved in the grounds of Emma’s family home Maer Hall and he is said to have spent many hours walking in the surrounding hills. His grandfathers, physician and thinker Erasmus Darwin and potter Josiah Wedgwood, were prominent members of Staffordshire society. Josiah Wedgwood V, the potter’s great-great-great-grandson, was a founder member of the University’s Council and Court of Governors, and is commemorated by an avenue of 20 silver willows close to the Darwin Building.

Hornbeam Building

The Hornbeam building is named after the magnificent hornbeam tree which is outside the building. It is rumoured that the Founding Professor of Geography, Stanley Beaver, had the plans for the building altered to accommodate the tree. The hornbeam is native to the South East of England. It is usually conic in shape but older trees can spread into a high dome. The bark is lead-grey and smooth except for a network of diffuse stripes of paler grey or brown, separated by darker fissures. The branches all tend to be very long, giving the tree the appearance of an old-fashioned broom or besom.
Hornbeam is frequently used as hedging. After box, it is the hardest of native woods, and was formerly used for ox-yokes, cog wheels for water and wind mills, and for piano keys.

Jack Ashley Building

Jack Ashley (1922-2012) was MP for Stoke-on-Trent South for 26 years, from 1966 to 1992. In December 1967, Ashley lost his hearing as a result of complications from a routine operation to correct a perforated eardrum. He was persuaded to retain his seat in the House of Commons, electing instead to take a crash course in lip reading. He thus became the first totally deaf MP. Ashley was a lifelong campaigner for the disabled, especially the deaf and blind. He led high profile campaigns, including the campaign for improved compensation for victims of thalidomide, vaccine damage and damage done by the arthritis drug, Opren. In 1986, he and his wife founded the charity Defeating Deafness.Following his retirement from Parliament in 1992, Ashley was made Baron Ashley of Stoke.

Lennard-Jones Laboratory and Buildings

Sir John Lennard-Jones (1894–1954) was a mathematician who some regard as the initiator of modern computational chemistry. Lennard-Jones is well known for his work on molecular structure, valency and intermolecular forces. His theories of liquids and of surface catalysis also remain influential. He was the UK’s first Professor of Theoretical Chemistry, at Cambridge University, having previously been Professor of Theoretical Physics at Bristol University. The research school that he founded at Cambridge attracted many of the UK’s leading scientists and mathematicians. The Royal Society of Chemistry awards the Lennard-Jones Medal and hosts the Lennard-Jones lecture each year. The Lennard-Jones potential is also named after him – the description of the potential energy as a function of the separation of atoms.

Tawney Building

Tawney Building 2009 Richard Henry Tawney (1880-1962) was an economic historian, social critic and proponent of adult education, whose writings had a profound influence on Lord Lindsay, the founder of Keele University. Tawney spent much of his early career teaching at the Workers’ Educational Association, combining his work with his pioneering efforts to bring about major social change. From 1905 to 1948, he served on the Workers’ Educational Association Executive, holding the offices of Vice-President (1920-1928; 1944-1948) and President (1928-1944). He also served on the Consultative Committee of the Board of Education (1912-1931), the Education Committee of the London County Council and the University Grants Committee. Lord Lindsay was inspired by Tawney’s writings which led to the creation of the ‘Keele experiment’, which began life as the University College of North Staffordshire in 1950.

Photo: Tawney Building taken in 2009 by Stan Beckensall (Class of 1954)

William Emes Building

William Emes (1729?-1803) was a renowned landscape gardener who created the beautiful gardens at Keele Hall. The early details of Emes’ life are not known, but by 1756 he was working on Kedleston Hall, Derbyshire, at the behest of Sir Nathaniel Curzon. Emes quickly developed an excellent reputation as a landscape gardener, his style being similar to that of Lancelot ‘Capability’ Brown. The main features of his designs were trees and water. The gardens at Keele Hall, for example, have eight lakes and tens of thousands of trees. Emes designed gardens all over England and Wales, predominantly in the Midlands. He worked on Keele Hall between 1768 and 1770, bringing his signature parkland style to the Sneyd estate.
In later life, he moved to the South of England, working extensively in Hampshire. He died in London in 1803.

The University Library

Library under construction Eminent architect Sir Howard Robertson was engaged to design the Library. The Library follows no particular style of architecture, but was designed to fit in with the overall style of the campus. The height was limited by the need for anti-subsidence measures, which also included special foundation work and slip-joints in certain areas. So there is no truth in the old chestnut that the ‘Library is sinking!’ By 1961, the first two phases of the construction were complete. At this point, the Library held around 200,000 volumes and over 300 readers. The building was officially opened in October 1962. Over the ensuing 50 years, the Library has undergone regular changes and updates in appearance, function and personnel. It has grown along with the University – in 1962, there were an estimated 98,000 visits; in 2012, that figure is well over 700,000. The Library had a number of previous homes, including the Great Hall of Keele Hall in the early years. An exhibition of the history of the Library produced for the 2012 Charter Anniversary is here.

Photo: Library under construction - Alan Self (Class of 1961)

Home Farm

Home Farm was originally built in 1833 during the extensive landscaping works carried out by Ralph Sneyd, shortly after he inherited the estate from his father. Home Farm was a ‘model farm’. The first model farms were built in the 1790s during the reign of George III. The architecture and layout of model farms were designed to enable agricultural experimentation and improvement. In Staffordshire and Cheshire this included increasing dairy output by feeding cattle higher quality fodder. Home Farm is fairly unusual as it was one of only 20 built in the 1830s and is actually older than the current Keele Hall. It was a fine example of a model farm and its renovation for the Keele Hub for Sustainability preserves many of the original features. There is an extesnive history of Home Farm here.

The Chapel

Chapel under Construction Keele University Chapel is the UK’s first religious building designed specifically to accommodate services by different Christian traditions. Although there were many precedents in terms of shared space and facilities, Keele Chapel is thought to be the first building designed specifically with ecumenical considerations at the forefront. Architect George Pace was appointed to design the University’s first permanent chapel in 1958. Students at what was then the University College of North Staffordshire previously worshipped in Keele Hall and then in a large Nissen hut remaining from its wartime role as a military base. In 1959 representatives from 10 European countries and the USA met at The Ecumenical Institute of the World Council of Churches to consider the architectural implications of closer co-operation between the denominations and churches. They hammered out a 13-point statement which Pace then used when preparing his plans for a multi-denominational chapel at Keele. Pace saw that ecumenical relations could affect the way that places of worship were laid out internally. More than anything he saw the need for buildings capable of keeping options open. He set out to design a building where ‘organic development could take place without the great cost of structural alterations or causing violent disruption to a carefully wrought interior.’ The Chapel is also used for concerts, Graduation Ceremonies and examinations as well as for other public events. The exterior of the Chapel was designed to be ‘austere, highly disciplined and timeless.’ Originally intended to be faced with sandstone, the generous gift of industrial-style bricks of the University’s choice from the Berry Hill Brick Company resulted in the Chapel’s construction in a striking blue Staffordshire brick. Improvements were made to the access and parterre outside the Chapel in September 2012 to match the new development of Union Square.

Photo above: Chapel under construction - Graham Fisher (Class of 1965)

More Buildings including the Dorothy Hodgkin Building, the Hornbeam Building and the various Halls of Residence will be added soon... along with the most famous off campus building - the Sneyd Arms in Keele village - as seen in this old postcard!