South Bank Polytechnic Student Union was formed in 1970 by amalgamating the unions of the Borough Polytechnic Institute, Brixton School of Building and City of Westminster College after these institutions were merged, along with the National College for Heating, Ventilating, Refrigeration and Fan Engineering to form the Polytechnic of the South Bank.
The Borough Polytechnic Students' Union had been situated in Borough Road Building, but the new South Bank Polytechnic Student Union was located on Rotary Street where facilities included a bar, coffee bar and games room. By 1973 the Union had established a Welfare Service and the clubs and societies on offer were categorised into four groups: sporting; academic; entertainments; and other. The Union promoted itself as "the only democratic organisation within the Polytechnic representing student's interest to the college and other authorities as a Union". As well as the building on Rotary Street, the Student Union also had a presence at Wandsworth Road Building, after its opening in 1973.
In 1987 the Polytechnic purchased the Vickers Building on Keyworth Street, which was renovated in order to house the finance department and the Student Union. Work was completed in 1990 and the building was renamed George Overend Building. It contained a Student Union shop and bar, a hairdressers and an events hall and was the second largest student venue in London. In 1993 the Union opened a shop in Wandsworth Road and in total provided four bars, two shops, a recreation room and student common room for the Polytechnic's students. The four categories for clubs and societies were altered to become: course based; cultural; external; and sports.
In January 1994 the Union opened a mini-mall on Keyworth Street containing the new Union shop, Endsleigh Insurance and a small space for amusement machines. The Union also expanded its welfare unit and opened two new entertainment venues within George Overend Building: The Void for smaller events and The Arc, which had space for 1,000 people. The venues within George Overend Building were refurbished and changed name several times, but by 1999 consisted of the Tavern, a bar styled as a traditional pub and Isobar, a larger venue.
The Student Union ceased to have facilities at Wandsworth Road in 2003 once the building was sold. It also ceded management of Turney Road Sports Pavilion to the University's Academy of Sport, Physical Activity & Wellbeing in 2006.
In 2007 the Student Union was relocated to a temporary structure on Thomas Doyle Street in order for the George Overend Building to be demolished. The temporary structure contained a shop, bar events area, outdoor seating and offices. The Union remained here until November 2012 when it moved to the newly built Student Centre next to Borough Road Building.
Staff member, Social Sciences Department, Polytechnic of the South Bank.
The Mad Dog Project was part of a research programme in the University's Sustainable Transport Research Centre in the School of Engineering. The Project designed and built low budget solar cars and competed in various World Solar Challenges. The first car, Mad Dog I entered the 1996 race, Mad Dog II competed in the 1998 World Solar Rally and Mad Dog III competed in several races, including the World Solar Challenge 2001 and 2001 American Solar Challenge.
Manor House Magazine was the College magazine for Battersea Training College of Domestic Science. Its first publication was in 1952.
Manor House, situated on Clapham Common Northside in Wandsworth was built in the early 19th Century and was originally called The Beeches. A grammar school for boys used it from 1906 adding several extensions and closing in 1939. The building was requisitioned by the Army during World War 2 and afterwards offered to the Battersea Domestic Science Department who moved there by September 1950. From then on Manor House was used by Battersea College of Education, who added two major extensions and went on to merge with the Polytechnic of the South Bank in 1976. The training of teachers and Domestic Economy, as well as Management subjects, took place there until South Bank University sold the site in 1993.
Battersea College of Education acquired Manresa House in Roehampton, in September 1962. It became the Battersea Training College for Primary Teachers, providing day courses for men and women, which began on 30th April 1963. Manresa House was closed in 1979 and primary education students were transferred to Rachel McMillan College.
The building was subsequently purchased by the University of Roehampton and re-named Parkstead House.
Sir Peter Mansfield was made an Honorary Doctor of Science of the University in 2005.
Nobel Laureate Professor Sir Peter Mansfield is an inventor who has changed the lives of millions, a scientist who has created revolutionary new pathways for physics, and a role model for people everywhere who want to achieve success from the most humble backgrounds.
Sir Peter's own background did not exactly prepare him for a distinguished scientific career, let alone winning the Nobel Prize, the highest accolade possible. He grew up in Lambeth and his father was a gas fitter, one of nine children. After the war broke out in 1939 when he was just six, he was evacuated twice and he spent some of his childhood in Torquay. When he returned to London, he did not succeed in getting into the local grammar school and was educated instead at a Central School in Peckham, which was later to become William Penn School. However, he left this school at 15 and started work as a printer's assistant. At this point in his life he was judged an academic failure and in particular was told by one of his teachers that science wasn't for him – an all too familiar story and in this case, spectacularly misjudged.
Even before this, as a young boy this fascination with science was sparked by his experiences when the V1 flying bombs and V2 rockets were falling on London – hence Lord Sainsbury's comment on the inspiration of bomb shrapnel of which the 11 year old Peter Mansfield amassed a considerable collection. This fascination became deep rooted and by the age of 19, he had taught himself enough about weapons and explosives to get a job as a scientific assistant in the Rocket Propulsion department, part of the Ministry of Supply, near Aylesbury. After National Service, he took up academic study again and did evening classes to get some A levels at what was then Borough Polytechnic and what is now today, of course, London South Bank University. Peter then won a bursary to study Physics at Queen Mary University as a mature student, a late career trajectory with which so many of our own students recognise. The mature student blossomed and Peter Mansfield graduated in 1959 with a 1st class Honours in Physics, which was followed by a PhD in 1962 under the supervision of Dr Jack Powles.
With his wife Jean, he spent two years as a Research Associate at the University of Illinois, before returning to the UK and a lectureship in Physics at the University of Nottingham, where he was appointed Professor in 1983 and has remained ever since albeit after formal retirement.
Peter Mansfield's work focused on the utilisation of gradients in the magnetic field. He showed how the signals could be mathematically analysed, which made it possible to develop a useful imaging technique. This was a major breakthrough not least because of the speed of the imaging. Within a decade of his developing his theory, the first medical applications were being developed. The commercial development of magnetic resonance imaging in the 1980s provided a breakthrough in medical diagnostics and research from which millions of patients around the world have benefited. There are now more than 22,000 MRI scanners in use worldwide, carrying out over 60 million examinations a year.
The use of MRI of course is expanding exponentially in line with health capacity demands and the increasing use of technology and even in this country, it is estimated that its use will increase by 60% over the next two years.
We, at London South Bank University, have a particular interest in these applications, since we hold a major contract to train diagnostic radiographers in the NHS while our researchers in Electrical Engineering are working with Peter Mansfield's colleagues at Nottingham in using superconductors.
Sir Peter Mansfield's career has been illuminated with honours and distinctions of the highest kind, including the Gold medal of the Royal Society, the Duddell Prize of the Institute of Physics, the Silvanus Thompson Medal by the British Institute of Radiology, the Antoine Beclere medal of the International Radiological Society, The Gold Medal of the European Congress of Radiology, and honorary degrees from universities including Strasbourg, Krakow, Kent and Nottingham. He was also knighted in 1993.
But his highest accolade came in 2003 when he shared the Nobel Prize for Physics with Professor Paul Lauterbur of the University of Illinois.
Accepting his award at the Nobelfest, Sir Peter expressed the feelings of many patients after their diagnosis, "What comes through to me is the strong sense of relief at knowing the details of their illness and the hope inspired by the vigorous evaluation of their problems using MRI."
For all his services to science and to medicine, for the transformation of the health of so many people, and for providing such a powerful role model for so many, Professor Sir Peter Mansfield was named as Doctor of Science honoris causa from London South Bank University.
School of Legal, Political and Social Sciences, South Bank University
The Maternity Center Association, now Childbirth Connection was founded in 1918 as a North American not-for-profit organization to improve the quality of maternity care through research, education, advocacy, and demonstration of maternity innovations. In 1939 the Association sponsored a major exhibition of sculptures of the childbirth process by Robert Latou Dickinson and Abram Belskie at the 1939-40 World's Fair.
McLaren House Halls of Residence at 1 St George's Circus, Southwark were officially opened in May 1994 and named after Christopher McLaren, the then Chancellor. The building stands on the site of the former Royal Eye Hospital.
Christopher McLaren was the University Chancellor from 1992 until 1999. He was made an Honorary Fellow of the University in June 2000.