UCL BLOOMSBURY PROJECT

History

It was founded in 1855 in Finsbury Square by the Chief Rabbi, Nathan Adler, as a combined day school for Jewish boys and a training college for Jewish ministers, readers, and teachers

Around 1879–1880 the School was abolished, and the College moved in 1881 to the former Dickens house, Tavistock House, Tavistock Square

According to The Times of 28 June 1881, this location would enable students who had already matriculated to continue their secular studies at the neighbouring University College

The College had acquired the house from Mr and Mrs Henry Weldon, who had lived there from 1871 to 1880 (Oxford Dictionary of National Biography)

The Jews’ College remained at Tavistock House until 1900, when it moved again to Queen Square House, Guildford Street, another house with an interesting history, as noted in The Times of 8 May 1900

The house was adapted considerably, and the College was able to increase its already significant library

The College moved to Woburn House, Woburn Place, in 1932 (in the same year that a new Jewish Communal Centre was opened in Tavistock Square) and, still within Bloomsbury, to Montague Place in 1957

It finally left Bloomsbury for Hendon in 1984 and became the London School of Jewish Studies in 1998

In 2008, it was Britain’s only Jewish higher-education institute