King's College was established in 1829 under the patronage of George IV.[4] Its royal charter outlined its mission as "the general education of youth in which the various branches of Literature and Science are intended to be taught, and also the doctrines and duties of Christianity [...] inculcated by the United Church of England and Ireland."[5] The College counted among its founders and benefactors the Duke of Wellington, who was Prime Minister at the time, and a number of other eminent politicians and theologians of the British Establishment.[6][7][8]
The College included a Chair of Classical Literature as part of its foundational setup. Classical subjects, along with Law, Literature and Theology, were therefore taught at King's from the day it first formally opened its doors in 1831. The inaugural Professor of Classical Literature was the English scholar Joseph Anstice, whose introductory lecture on the enduring significance of classical education marked the beginning of what is today the Classics Department.[9][10]
The Tale of Troy
The Tale of Troy is the title given to a series of famous performances in London between 1883 and 1887.
George Charles Winter Warr, Professor of Classical Literature from 1879 to 1901, developed an adaptation of the Iliad and the Odyssey entitled The Tale of Troy. Four performances were scheduled in late May and early June 1883, two in English and two in the original Greek. The goal was to raise sufficient funds to secure premises in Kensington for the newly founded King's College Lectures for Ladies.[11][12][13][14][15]
Although originally planned on a modest scale, the end product was a lavish spectacle staged in the South Kensington mansion of Sir Charles and Lady Freake. The plays were attended by prominent figures in scholarship, art, music, theatre and high society. The production was revived in May 1886, this time to raise funds for the extension of university teaching in London. This expanded version was moved to Prince's Hall in Piccadilly and included the story of Orestes, adapted from Aeschylus'sOresteian Trilogy. The Prince and Princess of Wales were also in attendance. The complete final version was published in 1887 under the title Echoes of Hellas with illustrations by Walter Crane.[11][13][14][16]
The Koraes Chair is named in honour of Adamantios Koraes, the founding father of the modern Greek nation state. Its inauguration also marked the beginning of the Department of Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies, which has itself since been merged into the Department of Classics.[21][22][23]
The Koraes Chair was recently held by Roderick Beaton for a thirty-year period from 1988 to 2018. It is currently held by the Belgian-American scholar Gonda Van Steen.[24]
The work of the original Chair of Classical Literature was split into two separate Chairs of Greek and Latin during this period.[28]
Modern Era
The Centre for Hellenic Studies (CHS) was established at the Department in 1989 to promote research and scholarship of Hellenic history, culture and language. On Greek Independence Day in 2010, plans were announced for the CHS to include teaching alongside its research activities. Under these new arrangements the CHS also came to incorporate the Department of Byzantine & Modern Greek Studies.[29]
A public dispute arose in 2010 over plans to axe the last Chair of Paleography in the United Kingdom and wider English speaking world.[30] Principal Rick Trainor announced the controversial plans as part of a College restructuring project.[31] The issue was debated as an Early Day Motion in Parliament.[32]
The British parliamentarian Boris Johnson visited the College in 2011 as Mayor of London to deliver a speech on the importance of classical education.[33][34]
In 2014, the Centre for Hellenic Studies merged its teaching and research activities with the Department of Classics. The CHS continues to be a prominent research centre of its own in the Arts & Humanities Research Institute (AHRI).[35][36]
Location
169 Strand
The Department of Classics is located on the historic Strand. It occupies a set of buildings at the corner of Surrey Street which are linked internally through a series of corridors and staircases. 169 Strand was purpose-built for College use in 1928 above the disused Strand station and features the old King's coat of arms on its facade. The Royal Strand Theatre stood on this site from 1832 until its demolition in 1905. 170 Strand contains offices, teaching rooms and the department common room with a balcony overlooking the street. 171 Strand is a corner house with retail operating on ground floor level. Academic offices extend along 39 to 41 Surrey Street.[27][37]
The King's College London Rifle & Pistol Club (KCLRPC) has occupied the Strandunderground tunnels beneath the department as their shooting range since the 1920s.[38]
In the most recent Research Excellence Framework (2014), the department ranked 7th out of 22 in the United Kingdom for research.[41] The Complete University Guide ranked Classics at King's as 11th nationally in 2019,[42] and in its 2022 Guide, it ranked Classics as 16th[43] and history (inclusive of ancient history) at 10th.[44] In 2018, the QS World University Rankings ranked the department at 5th nationally and 21st globally.[45][46] In the Guardian University Guide, Classics & ancient history at King's was rated 22nd out of 26 in 2020,[47] rising to 15th out of 25 in 2021.[48]
Traditions
The King's Greek Play has been an annual tradition since 1953. It is the only dramatic production in the United Kingdom to be performed every year in the original ancient Greek language. The production has also previously toured America and Canada. The Department of Classics houses a physical archive of related materials and recordings.[49][50][51]
Every year on the first Thursday of February, the department hosts its annual Runciman Lecture named in honour of Sir Steven Runciman. The lectures were established in the early 1990s and funded in perpetuity by the Czech count and artist Nicholas Egon. The event is traditionally preceded by an Orthodox Vespers in the College Chapel on the Strand.[52][53][54]
The Jamie Rumble Memorial Fund was established in 2013 through a major donation from a former student. The Rumble Fund sponsors field trips where students have the opportunity to engage directly with the classical lands in their studies. Travel destinations have so far included Athens and Rome, with future trips to sites in Cyprus, Sicily, North Africa and Turkey proposed. The Rumble Fund also subsidises an annual guest lecture in classical art.[55][56]
The Department of Classics also supports the Iris Project, an educational charity designed to promote study of the classical world to state schools in the United Kingdom. Students in the department have the opportunity to teach Latin to disadvantaged children.[57][58][59]
Student life in the department is administered by the Classics Society (formerly the Classical Society). The Society publishes a journal titled the New Satyrica. A new undergraduate research journal, Kerberos, was also launched in 2018. There is a common room at 170 Strand which previously housed the departmental library.[49][60][51][61]
The Classics Society hosts an annual Winter Ball.[62]
People
There are a number of notable individuals associated with the Classics Department at King's.
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