Gresham College


Gresham College is an institution of higher learning located at Barnard's Inn Hall off Holborn in Central London, England. It does not enroll students and does not award any degrees. It was founded in 1597 under the will of Sir Thomas Gresham, and it hosts over 140 free public lectures every year. Since 2001, all lectures have also been made available online.

History

Founding and early years

Sir Thomas Gresham, founder of the Royal Exchange, left his estate jointly to the City of London Corporation and to the Mercers' Company, which today support the college through the Joint Grand Gresham Committee under the presidency of the Lord Mayor of London. Gresham's will provided for the setting up of the College – in Gresham's mansion in Bishopsgate, on the site now occupied by Tower 42, the former NatWest Tower – and endowed it with the rental income from shops sited around the Royal Exchange, which Gresham had established.
The early success of the College led to the incorporation of the Royal Society in 1663, which pursued its activities at the College in Bishopsgate before moving to its own premises in Crane Court in 1710. The College remained in Gresham's mansion in Bishopsgate until 1768, and moved about London thereafter until the construction in 1842 of its own buildings in Gresham Street EC2. Gresham College did not become part of the University of London on the founding of the University in the 19th century, although a close association between the College and the University persisted for many years. Since 1991, the College has operated at Barnard's Inn Hall, Holborn EC1.

Gresham College today

Since 2000, the college regularly welcomes visiting speakers who deliver lectures on topics outside its usual range, and it also hosts occasional seminars and conferences. Today the college provides in the region of 130 lectures a year, all of which are free and open to the public.
Although many of the lectures are held in Barnard's Inn Hall, the majority are now held in the lecture hall at the Museum of London, for reasons of capacity.
Since 2001, the college has been recording its lectures and releasing them online in what is now an of over 2,000 lectures. Since 2007, lectures have also been available through YouTube with 20,755,968 views as of 2018.
Annual lectures series of particular note hosted by the college include: the Gresham Special Lecture, the Annual Lord Mayor's Event, and the Gray's Inn Reading.
The College is a registered charity under English law.

Professors

The seven original Gresham College Professorships that date back to the origins of the college are as follows:
These original endowed chairs reflect the curriculum of the medieval university ; but as a place for the public and frequent voicing of new ideas, the college played an important role in the Enlightenment and in the formation of the Royal Society. Early distinguished Gresham College professors included Christopher Wren, who lectured on astronomy in the 17th century and Robert Hooke, who was Professor of Geometry from 1665 until 1704., 1740|leftThe professors received £50 a year, and the terms of their position were very precise, for example:
Today three further Professorships have been added to take account of areas not otherwise covered by the original Professorships:
The professors currently hold their positions for three years, extendable for a fourth year, and give six lectures a year. There are also regular visiting professors appointed to give series of lectures at the College, and a large number of single-lecture speakers.

Gresham Special Lecture series

The Gresham Special Lecture originated in 1988 as a free public lecture delivered by a prominent speaker. It was devised as a focus-point among the other 126 free public lectures offered every year.