Anniversary of the University's foundation
Published: 7 January 2010
January 7 is the anniversary of the founding of the University of Glasgow in 1451.
January 7 is the anniversary of the founding of the University of Glasgow in 1451.
It is 559 years since King James II of Scotland asked Pope Nicholas V to grant a lead seal, or bull, authorising Bishop William Turnbull of Glasgow to set up a university.
The University of Glasgow is the fourth oldest in the English-speaking world and its foundation pre-dates the birth of Christopher Columbus.
For its first nine years, the fledgling university was based at Glasgow Cathedral. In 1460, the University moved to High Street, where, over the next 400 years, it continued to expand both in its scope and size. It was a centre of the both the industrial revolution and the Scottish Enlightenment.
As it grew however, the University was restricted by the encroaching overcrowding and squalor of the city and the expanding factories and railways, fruits of the industrial expansion it had helped to shape. As a result, in 1870, it moved to its current familiar west end location at Gilmorehill, then a greenfield site enclosed by a large loop of the River Kelvin.
First published: 7 January 2010
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