Campus at the University of Edinburgh
View of King's Buildings from the
Braid Hills
The
King's Buildings
(colloquially known as just King's or KB) is a campus of the
University of Edinburgh
in
Scotland
. Located in the suburb of
Blackford
, the site contains most of the schools within the
College of Science and Engineering
, excepting only the
School of Informatics
and part of the
School of Geosciences
, which are located at the central
George Square
campus. The campus lies south of West Mains Road, west of Mayfield Road and east of
Blackford Hill
, about 2 miles (3.2 km) south of George Square.
[1]
Scotland's Rural College
(SRUC) and
Biomathematics and Statistics Scotland
(BioSS) also have facilities there.
History
[
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]
Paolozzi statue at King's Buildings
In 1919 Edinburgh University bought the land of West Mains Farm in the south of the city with the intention of building a satellite campus specialising in the Sciences. The first building was the Chemistry Building (renamed the Joseph Black Building) designed by
Arthur Forman Balfour Paul
in 1919.
[2]
Building started in 1920 and was completed after 1924 by John Fraser Matthew. This was followed by the Zoology Building (renamed the Ashworth Laboratories) dating from 1929, also by Matthew.
The name "King's Buildings" is a reference to then-king
George V
.
During
World War II
, the Genetics Institute part of King's Buildings was used as the location for the first
War Office Selection Board
.
[3]
University of Edinburgh celebrated more than 100 years of the site in 2021 with their KB101 campaign which included a lecture series
[4]
and newly commissioned artworks by
Katie Paterson
.
[5]
Street and building names
[
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Marion Ross Road sign
All the campus properties shared one of two addresses until, in 2014, the University approached the
City of Edinburgh Council
, as the road naming authority, with a request to name all the individual roads within the campus to honour famous scientists and mathematicians associated with the University. When the proposed changes were discussed in City of Edinburgh Development Management Sub-Committee, it was pointed out that some of the names were overly long and cumbersome. Two of the proposed names were rejected as unsuitable as Christina Miller was deemed to be too similar sounding to Christie Miller, who already appears in three street names; and
Robert Edwards
did not meet the Council’s 10-year waiting period for deceased people. The University eventually substituted Marion Ross Road for Christina Miller Road and James Dewar Road for Robert Edwards Road.
[6]
The final agreed street system was:
Statues at Kings Buildings
New KB Nucleus Phase 1 Building
Buildings
[
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]
James Clerk Maxwell Building
The Noreen and Kenneth Murray Library
Christina Miller Building
Sanderson Building (Engineering)
Scottish Microelectronics Centre
Building names at KB reflect the spectrum of British science:
Darwin Building in 1967
On 5 August 2014, FloWave TT
[10]
was inaugurated by
Amber Rudd
, UK
Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change
. The FloWave Ocean Energy Research Facility is a world-unique, 25-metre (82 ft) diameter wave and current tank primarily focused on testing marine energy technologies and projects.
In 2019 the data centre in the James Clerk Maxwell Building was named in honour of
Mary Somerville
[11]
and in 2020 the IT skills training room was named in honour of
Xia Peisu
.
Other facilities
[
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]
- King's Buildings House, also known as KB House, is the student union at King's Buildings, run by
Edinburgh University Students' Association
(EUSA). The Mayfield Bar and Blackford Lounge serve hot food and drinks on the ground floor, along with the KB House Shop and a games room. A full servery, Common Room and Kitchen, can be found upstairs, serving a wider variety of hot food. The union is also home to The Advice Place student advisory service and KB Gym, which includes two badminton and two squash courts.
- KB Centre Shop is another EUSA-run shop, located in the KB Centre. The store stocks convenience products, alongside hot drinks, made-to-order sandwiches and hot food to take away.
[12]
- Cafes include The Magnet Cafe in the James Clerk Maxwell Building, KB Cafe in the Noreen and Kenneth Murray Library, Upstairs Cafe in the Swann Building, XY Cafe in the Roger Land Building, Brucks Cafe in the Mary Bruck building, and The Eng Inn in the Hudson Beare Building
.
[13]
King's Buildings 5 Mile Road Race
[
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]
The
KB 5 Road Race
is organised every year by the Edinburgh University Hare and Hounds Running Club.
[14]
It is usually held in late February or early March. The race starts and finishes inside the King's Buildings campus. The course consists of a 5-mile (8.0 km) road loop around the streets of south Edinburgh, with quite a few hills, though none of them steep. The race is popular with student and local club runners and usually attracts around 250 participants.
[15]
Notes
[
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]
References
[
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]
External links
[
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]
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Governance
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History
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People
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Academic
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- College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences
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Places
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Student life
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Associated
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Government
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Libraries
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Museums and
galleries
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Monuments
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Current hospitals
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Churches
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Former churches
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Houses
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Hospitality
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Sport
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Entertainment
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Transport
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Defence
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55°55′22″N
3°10′30″W
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55.92278°N 3.17500°W
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55.92278; -3.17500