Goodenough College

Goodenough College, originally known as the Dominion Students’ Hall Trust, was set up in 1930 by a group of prominent Londoners, including the chairman of Barclays Bank and founder of Barclays Bank DCO (Dominion, Colonial, and Overseas) Frederick Craufurd Goodenough, and his wife Maeve Goodenough (nee Macnamara). Goodenough and his friends wanted to provide collegiate life along Oxbridge lines to young men coming to London from the British dominions and colonies, who could be seen as prospective leaders of what was then a large empire. The College aimed to serve as a moot hall for its residents, and a place where they could form lasting friendships in a spirit of tolerance and…

In 1965, the Dominion Students’ Hall Trust and the Sister Trust merged to form London House for Overseas Graduates. Although initially accommodation had been reserved for students from the Commonwealth, students from the United States were admitted from 1950 and from mainland Europe in 1974, following the United Kingdom’s accession to the European Community. In 1991, both London House and William Goodenough House started to offer mixed accommodation. The two merged in 2001 to form Goodenough College, a community open to students of any nationality.