Edinburgh University Union
Edinburgh University Union in Teviot Row House was opened on 19 October 1889. It is is the oldest purpose built student union in the world.
Following its formation in 1884, the Students' Representative Council set as its first priority the opening of a University Union. Buoyed by its successful contribution to the Tercentenary Festival, the SRC set about public fundraising. Over, £10,000 paid was raised by a Fancy Fair at Waverley Market in November 1886. The new Union was built very much on the lines of a Victorian gentleman's club. It included a restaurant, library, and debating hall, which would become both a meeting place for many university societies and a venue for dances and other social events. Membership was by subscription, however, and only a small minority of students joined. Medical students were initially in a great majority, as the Union premises in Teviot Row adjoined the newly opened Medical School.
See Also
- Foundation of Students' Representative Council, 1884
- Foundation of Edinburgh University Students' Association, 1973
Sources
- Robert D. Anderson, 'The Construction of a Modern University', in Robert D. Anderson, Michael Lynch, and Nicholas Phillipson, The University of Edinburgh: An Illustrated History (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2003), pp. 103-207.
- Iain Catto (ed.), 'No spirits and precious few women': Edinburgh University Union 1889-1989 (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Union and Iain Catto, 1989)
- Sir Thomas Henry Holland, 'Introduction', in A. Logan Turner (ed.), History of the University of Edinburgh 1883-1933 (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1933), pp. xiii-xxx.