May 22, 2025, by Chloe

The Beginnings of University Park

Did you know that University Park was originally intended to be a ‘model village’ rather than a university? Prominent industrialist Sir Jesse Boot purchased the Highfields estate in 1919, with the initial idea of transforming it into an attractive self-contained suburb to house Boots employees. However, around the same time, he had been engaging in discussions about the prospect of creating an ‘East Midlands University’ with Edmund Huntsman, who was a member of University College Nottingham’s ruling council as well as serving as a local councillor. By chance, Boot and Huntsman were on a drive through Highfields in 1921 when it struck them that the estate could be an ideal home for such an institution.

MS 313 Coloured artist’s impression of the proposed University Boulevard and Highfields Park, Nottingham, by W.H. Radford and Son, civil engineers of Nottingham, c.1920

This proposed University was envisioned as a regional academic hub, amalgamating various regional colleges into one large institution with the right to grant degrees in its own right. This would have marked a significant transformation of local tertiary educational provision, which, in the early 20^th century, was comprised of a patchwork of colleges who did not have the power to confer degrees in their own right, but rather, were reliant on accreditation by an external body. For instance, students at University College Nottingham (UCN) had their degrees conferred by the University of London.

UFE/2/1/1/76 Plan showing section through Trent Building.

Later that year, Boot donated significant quantities of land at Highfields to be used for the new university, and UCN was intended to be one of its constituent institutions, wasted no time making the move: no doubt motivated by the fact that they were running out of space at their original Shakespeare Street base. The foundation stone of the first University College building, which was designed by Neo-Georgian architect Morley Horder, was laid on 14 June 1922. The building was finally opened on 10 July 1928 by King George V and Queen Mary, although it wouldn’t get its current moniker, Trent Building, until work began on the Portland Building 1953. The new building was warmly received, though novelist and former UCN student DH Lawrence did describe it, with his characteristic wit, as looking like an ‘iced cake’.

NUP/1/24 Trent building under construction, nearly completed, c.1927.

In addition to donating the land on which University Park now stands, Boot also gave money for the construction of the Trent Building, the first women’s hall at University College Nottingham, Florence Boot Hall (opened 1928) and for the conversion of a former banker’s house into the first designated men’s hall, Hugh Stewart Hall (opened 1929).

UMP/10/17/2/4/1 Glass plate negative showing a blackboard announcing the creation of the University of Nottingham; 20 August 1948

While the idea of an ‘East Midlands University’ was eventually abandoned, University College Nottingham was granted a university charter in 1948. That was the moment the University of Nottingham was born, and that Boot’s ambitious vision was finally achieved. Appropriately, this achievement was marked by the placement of a blackboard outside the entrance of the Trent Building announcing the creation of the University on the day the charter was signed, 20^th August 1948.

If you ‘d like to find out more about the history of the University, why not make a visit to our reading room? To find out more, or to book an appointment today, please contact us at mss-library@nottingham.ac.uk.

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