UCL BLOOMSBURY PROJECT

History

It was founded in 1805 by controversial philologist John Borthwick Gilchrist and the East India Company, as a college to teach Indian languages to civil servants (Oxford Dictionary of National Biography)

By 1826, Gilchrist had handed over control of the institution to Duncan Forbes and Sandford Arnot, with whom he also later quarrelled; “the first annual report of the London Oriental Institution (1828) revealed that he had tried to set up rival classes nearby” (Oxford Dictionary of National Biography)

It took both day students and boarders, the latter at a cost of 25 guineas a quarter in 1829 The Asiatic Journal and Monthly Register for British India and its Dependencies, vol. XXVIII, 1829)

When it moved from Leicester Square to Bloomsbury, the Asiatic Journal advertisement commented on the move to Bloomsbury that “this Establishment has now been removed to a commodious building in the above central situation, in a most healthy and eligible part of the metropolis, lying convenient for all that quarter of it in which families connected with India chiefly reside. It combines the advantage of easy access, with that of the seclusion and retirement which are so favourable for study. It possesses excellent accommodation for students; and being near to that great Emporium of Literature and Science, the British Museum, as well as to the University of London, the Students at his Seminary have within their reach the best means that can be desired of completing their education, and cultivating every branch of human knowledge” (The Asiatic Journal and Monthly Register for British India and its Dependencies, vol. XXVIII, 1829)

It no longer exists