The University's Passmore Centre building was designed by CJ Phipps and Arthur Blomfield Jackson and opened as a public library in 1899. It was original called the Passmore Edwards Library, having been paid for by John Passmore Edwards, a Victorian philanthropist. It was later known as the St. George the Martyr Library and after it became part of Southwark Council's network of libraries it was called the Borough Road Library. It was purchased by South Bank University and converted to a nursery in September 1993. The nursery closed in 2011. The Passmore Centre opened as a business skills and training hub designed to provide access for local people and businesses to high quality apprenticeships and other forms of employer-supported study on 28 November 2018.
The building is Grade II listed (building No. 470670, listed 17 September 1998 - Listing NGR: TQ3173879494) and constructed of red brick and terracotta with a pitched, tiled roof in the Art Nouveau style.
The book was compiled by R. T. Baines and L. M. Langston, Clerk to the Wardens, at the request of John Wylde, Esq., Warden of the Great Account, 1910-1913.
Secretary of the Polytechnic of the South Bank 1970-1973 and Borough Polytechnic 1946-1970.
Anne Owers was made an Honorary Fellow of the University in 2005.
Dame Anne Owers DBE was the first woman to be appointed to the post of Her Majesty's Chief Inspector of Prisons. But more significantly, she was one of the most renowned campaigners for human rights and law reform.
Anne Owers was educated at Washington Grammar School County Durham before going on to study at Girton College, Cambridge from where she graduated with a degree in History. From 1968 to 1971 she taught in Zambia undertook research for a PhD in African History. For four years from 1981 she worked as a researcher at the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants, and then she held the post of General Secretary there until 1992.
During her distinguished career she has chaired the Board of Trustees of the Refugee Legal Centre between 1993 and 1996. She was a Member of the Lord Chancellor's Advisory Committee on Legal Education and Conduct from 1997 to 1999 and after that a member of the Home Office's Task Force on the Human Rights Act for two years. In addition, she served on the Legal Services Consultative Panel from 2000 to 2001.
However it was as the Director of the human rights and law reform group Justice from 1992 to 2001 that she gained national recognition as a Human Rights campaigner. Under her, Justice (which boasts 300 judges among its members) produced reports urging reform of the law in many important areas: investigating miscarriages of justice, life sentences, juvenile justice, and asylum law. Justice supported key cases in international and domestic courts, for example, to remove Ministers' powers to determine the length of detention for individual life sentenced prisoners.
Many believe that Anne's background has labelled her an "outsider"; a status she believes is an "advantage", allowing her a fresh perspective on her work. The plight of prisoners was one of Justice's main concerns. Perhaps her greatest achievement during her time at Justice was to help secure the setting up of the Criminal Cases Review Commission which was created to investigate more effectively possible miscarriages of justice.
Anne's reports on the conditions and treatment of inmates in prisons and immigration detention centres have shed light into these hidden places. Building on four key tests – that prisoners and detainees should be held safely, treated with respect, allowed to engage in purposeful activity and prepared for release – she has succeeded in improving conditions in individual prisons, and highlighted the effects of prison overcrowding. She has drawn particular attention to suicides in prison, the treatment of children, the extent of mental illness among prisoners, and the need for effective rehabilitation. Under her, the Inspectorate has developed human rights based criteria which are accepted internationally, and have been used outside England and Wales. Using the same approach, her reports into immigration detention facilities have exposed shortcomings and achieved some improvements.
Anne Owers has contributed much to the cause of human rights through her work both in the past, and in her current role as Her Majesty's Chief Inspector of Prisons. She has raised the profile of prison reform and contributed to the protection of the human rights of all detainees in this country. She has also maintained her commitment to issues of diversity which she first became involved with in the 1970s as part of the Race Relations Commission in the diocese of Southwark.
Staff member, Department of Nursing and Community Health Studies, Polytechnic of the South Bank.
Herman Ouseley, Baron Ouseley (formerly known as Sir Herman Ouseley) was made an Honorary Doctor of Laws of the University in November 2003.
Lord Ouseley was a local government officer between 1963 and 1993. He was appointed as the first principal race relations advisor in local government. From 1981, he served as Principal Race Relations Adviser and head of the Greater London Council's Ethnic Minority Unit. He later became Chief Executive of the London Borough of Lambeth and the former Inner London Education Authority (the first black person to hold such an office), responsible for over 1000 schools and colleges across the capital. Ouseley was chair and chief executive in the Commission for Racial Equality from 1993 to 2000.
From Lost Hospitals of London: https://ezitis.myzen.co.uk/oldchurch.html Oldchurch Hospital originated from the Romford Union workhouse, which had been built during 1838 and 1839 to the southwest of Romford. The 5-acre site on Oldchurch Road was purchased by the Union from a Mr Philpot at £160 an acre. The 2-storey workhouse building was cruciform, a popular design with the dormitory blocks laid out in a cross-shape. It could house 450 inmates. The administration block was at the south of the site, while the main accommodation blocks radiated from a central hub. Observation windows in the hub enabled the workhouse master to observe the inmates in each of the four exercise yards. The dormitories and Day Rooms for the female inmates were on the eastern side in the northeast and southeast arms of the cross, while the males occupied the western side in the northwest and southwest arms. The kitchens and dining rooms were located at the north of the building. In 1893 the workhouse was renamed the Romford Poor Law Institution. An infirmary block was added at the north of the site. During WW1 the infirmary of the Institution became the Romford Military Hospital, an auxiliary hospital for the Colchester Military Hospital, with 82 beds for wounded and sick servicemen. In 1924 further additions were built at the north and east of the site. In 1929, following the abolition of the Poor Law Guardians, the workhouse and its infirmary came under the administration of Essex County Council, who converted the buildings into the Oldchurch County Hospital. The Hospital, which incorporated the old workhouse buildings, was much expanded during the 1930s to have over 800 beds. Hainault Lodge became an a exe to provide accommodation for elderly chronically ill female patients. During WW2 it joined the Emergency Medical Service (EMS) with 868 beds, of which 96 were EMS beds for air-raid casualties. In 1948 the Hospital joined the NHS under the control of the Romford Group Hospital Management Committee, part of the North East Metropolitan Regional Hospital Board. In 1950 it had 750 beds for general and maternity cases but, by 1952, some 718 beds. It remained an acute hospital and, by 1962, it had 651 beds for acute and maternity patients. In 1974, following a major reorganisation of the NHS, the Hospital came under the control of the Havering District Health Authority, part of the Barking and Havering Area Health Authority of the North East Thames Regional Health Authority. Its maternity services had closed and it had 629 beds for acute cases. In 1980 it had 600 beds. In 1982, after another NHS reorganisation, it came under the control of the Barking, Havering and Brentwood District Health Authority. By 1986 it had 530 beds. In 1993, following another NHS reform, the Hospital was under the control of the Havering Hospitals NHS Trust. In 2000 it had 473 beds. Despite local opposition, the old cruciform workhouse building was demolished so that a temporary single-storey building could be erected in its place. In 2003 the Hospital was administered by the Barking, Havering and Redbridge NHS Trust. By 2005 there were 565 beds. The Hospital closed in 2006, with the last patient being seen on 15th December. Services were transferred to the nearby newly built Queen's Hospital and to the King George Hospital in Chadwell Heath.
Obelisk Dairy was founded in 1810 at 119 Borough Road near to St. Georges Circus and obelisk. The building has been disused for many years and forms part of London South Bank University's estates.
Norwood Technical College, also known as The Lower Norwood Working Men's Institute, was endowed by the Scottish philanthropist Arthur Anderson (1792-1868) to benefit the local community in 1860. As well as founder of the college, Anderson co-founded the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company (P&O) (1840) and was a Liberal MP for the Orkney and Shetland Constituency (1847-1852).
In 1895 Lower Norwood Working Men's Institute merged with London County Council (LCC) classes to become Norwood Technical Institute as a branch of the Borough Polytechnic Institute. The Borough Polytechnic Institute Governors managed the Institute from 1895 until 1905 at the cost of the LCC. In 1905 the Institute became independent as one of the first fully maintained technical institutions of the LCC. During the war years 1939-1945, the college figured prominently as a centre for training wireless mechanics and operators. After the war, science and technical courses expanded and the Jackson Building was opened.
The Institute was renamed Norwood Technical College in 1950 later South London College in 1974. The College's original site was closed in the late 1990s and the site was cleared in 2000. South London College, Brixton College and Vauxhall College merged in 1992 to become Lambeth College.
Norwood Technical College was originally known as Norwood Technical Institute. After the Second World War the College expanded its science and technical courses, opening a new building called the Jackson Building. In 1968/1969 the College expanded again and acquired an annex on Tooley Street near Tower Bridge which offered technician courses in applied science and dentistry. In September 1974 the College was renamed South London College.