University of Glasgow

The University of Glasgow was founded in 1451 by a charter issued by Pope Nicholas V, on the instructions of James II. It is the fourth oldest university in the English-speaking world. Until 1860 it was situated on the High Street, when it moved to its present site on Gilmorehill, next to the River Kelvin. Sir George Gilbert Scott (1811-78) designed the campus in the Gothic Revival style, the second largest in the UK after the Palace of Westminster. The University contains the Hunterian Museum and Art Gallery, which is the home of The Mackintosh House, designed and furnished by Charles Rennie Mackintosh. The University expanded across Gilmorehill, with a 1930s reading room, and into many terraces of Victorian houses. Since then it has continued to spread into many other areas. Along with the Cenotaph in George Square, Sir John Burnet (1857–1938) designed the University’s Memorial Chapel, to commemorate the 755 members of the University who died in the First World War. Alumni of the University have included Adam Smith, the economist (1723-90), James Watt, inventor of the steam engine (1736-1819), William Thomson, later Lord Kelvin, OM the distinguished mathematician and scientist (1824-1907), and John Logie Baird, who created the world’s first television (1888-1946).