The King's Buildings (colloquially known as just King's or KB) is a campus of the

University of Edinburgh The University of Edinburgh (, ; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals) is a Public university, public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Founded by the City of Edinburgh Council, town council under th ...

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

. Located in the suburb of Blackford, the site contains most of the schools within the College of Science and Engineering, excepting only the School of Informatics and part of the School of Geosciences, which are located at the central

George Square George Square () is the principal Town square, civic square in the city of Glasgow, Scotland. It is one of six squares in the city centre, the others being Cathedral Square, Glasgow, Cathedral Square, St Andrew's Square, Glasgow, St Andrew's ...

campus. The campus lies south of West Mains Road, west of Mayfield Road and east of Blackford Hill, about south of George Square. Scotland's Rural College (SRUC) and Biomathematics and Statistics Scotland (BioSS) also have facilities there.

History

In 1919 Edinburgh University bought the land of West Mains Farm in the south of the city with the intention of building a satellite campus specialising in the Sciences. The first building was the Chemistry Building (renamed the Joseph Black Building) designed by Arthur Forman Balfour Paul in 1919. Building started in 1920 and was completed after 1924 by John Fraser Matthew. This was followed by the Zoology Building (renamed the Ashworth Laboratories) dating from 1929, also by Matthew. The name "King's Buildings" is a reference to then-king

George V George V (George Frederick Ernest Albert; 3 June 1865 – 20 January 1936) was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Emperor of India, from 6 May 1910 until Death and state funeral of George V, his death in 1936. George w ...

. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, the Genetics Institute part of King's Buildings was used as the location for the first War Office Selection Board. University of Edinburgh celebrated more than 100 years of the site in 2021 with their KB101 campaign which included a lecture series and newly commissioned artworks by

Katie Paterson Katie Paterson (born 1981) is a Fife-based visual artist from Glasgow, Scotland, having previously lived and worked in Berlin whose artworks concern translation, distance, and scale. Paterson holds a BA from Edinburgh College of Art (2004) and a ...

Street and building names

All the campus properties shared one of two addresses until, in 2014, the University approached the

City of Edinburgh Council The City of Edinburgh Council (Scottish Gaelic: ''Comhairle Baile Dhùn Èideann'') is the local government authority covering the City of Edinburgh council area. Almost half of the council area is the built-up area of Edinburgh, capital of Sco ...

, as the road naming authority, with a request to name all the individual roads within the campus to honour famous scientists and mathematicians associated with the University. When the proposed changes were discussed in City of Edinburgh Development Management Sub-Committee, it was pointed out that some of the names were overly long and cumbersome. Two of the proposed names were rejected as unsuitable as Christina Miller was deemed to be too similar sounding to Christie Miller, who already appears in three street names; and Robert Edwards did not meet the Council’s 10-year waiting period for deceased people. The University eventually substituted Marion Ross Road for Christina Miller Road and James Dewar Road for Robert Edwards Road. The final agreed street system was: *

Charlotte Auerbach Charlotte "Lotte" Auerbach FRS FRSE (14 May 1899 – 17 March 1994) was a German geneticist who contributed to founding the science of mutagenesis. She became well known after 1942 when she discovered, with A. J. Clark and J. M. Robson, tha ...

Road *

Thomas Bayes Thomas Bayes ( , ; 7 April 1761) was an English statistician, philosopher and Presbyterian minister who is known for formulating a specific case of the theorem that bears his name: Bayes' theorem. Bayes never published what would become his m ...

Road *

Max Born Max Born (; 11 December 1882 – 5 January 1970) was a German-British theoretical physicist who was instrumental in the development of quantum mechanics. He also made contributions to solid-state physics and optics, and supervised the work of a ...

Crescent *

David Brewster Sir David Brewster Knight of the Royal Guelphic Order, KH President of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, PRSE Fellow of the Royal Society of London, FRS Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, FSA Scot Fellow of the Scottish Society of ...

Road *

Alexander Crum Brown Alexander Crum Brown Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, FRSE Fellow of the Royal Society, FRS (26 March 1838 – 28 October 1922) was a Scottish Organic chemistry, organic chemist. Alexander Crum Brown Road in Edinburgh's King's Buildi ...

Road * James Dewar Road *

James Hutton James Hutton (; 3 June Old Style and New Style dates, O.S. 1726 – 26 March 1797) was a Scottish geologist, Agricultural science, agriculturalist, chemist, chemical manufacturer, Natural history, naturalist and physician. Often referred to a ...

Road * KB Square *

Colin MacLaurin Colin Maclaurin (; ; February 1698 – 14 June 1746) was a Scottish mathematician who made important contributions to geometry and algebra. He is also known for being a child prodigy and holding the record for being the youngest professor. ...

Road * Marion Ross Road *

Peter Guthrie Tait Peter Guthrie Tait (28 April 18314 July 1901) was a Scottish Mathematical physics, mathematical physicist and early pioneer in thermodynamics. He is best known for the mathematical physics textbook ''Treatise on Natural Philosophy'', which he ...

Road * Robert Stevenson Road * Nicholas Kemmer Road

Buildings

Building names at KB reflect the spectrum of British science: *

Alexander Graham Bell Alexander Graham Bell (; born Alexander Bell; March 3, 1847 – August 2, 1922) was a Scottish-born Canadian Americans, Canadian-American inventor, scientist, and engineer who is credited with patenting the first practical telephone. He als ...

Building * Alrick Building * Ann Walker Building * Ashworth Laboratories * Biospace * Centre for Science at Extreme Conditions * Christina Miller Building * Computing Services *

Crew A crew is a body or a group of people who work at a common activity, generally in a structured or hierarchy, hierarchical organization. A location in which a crew works is called a crewyard or a workyard. The word has nautical resonances: the ta ...

Building * Crew Laboratory (previously the William Dudgeon Labs and earlier Mouse House) * Daniel Rutherford Building * Darwin Building * Engineering Lecture Theatre * Erskine Williamson Building *

Faraday Michael Faraday (; 22 September 1791 – 25 August 1867) was an English chemist and physicist who contributed to the study of electrochemistry and electromagnetism. His main discoveries include the principles underlying electromagnetic inducti ...

Building *

Fleeming Jenkin Henry Charles Fleeming Jenkin Royal Society of London, FRS FRSE (; 25 March 1833 – 12 June 1885) was a British engineer, inventor, economist, linguist, actor and dramatist known as the inventor of the cable car or Aerial tramway#Telpherage, t ...

Building * Grant Institute * Hudson Beare Building *

James Clerk Maxwell James Clerk Maxwell (13 June 1831 – 5 November 1879) was a Scottish physicist and mathematician who was responsible for the classical theory of electromagnetic radiation, which was the first theory to describe electricity, magnetism an ...

Building *

John Muir John Muir ( ; April 21, 1838December 24, 1914), also known as "John of the Mountains" and "Father of the national park, National Parks", was a Scottish-born American naturalist, author, environmental philosopher, botanist, zoologist, glaciologi ...

Building * John Murray Labs * Joseph Black Building * Kenneth Denbigh Building * King's Buildings Centre * King's Buildings House * March Building * Mary Brück Building * Michael Swann Building * Murchison House * Noreen and Kenneth Murray Library * The Nucleus * Ocean Energy Research Facility * Peter Wilson Building * Robertson Engineering & Science Library * Roger Land Building * Sanderson Building * Scottish Microelectronics Centre * Structures Lab * Swann Building * Waddington Building * William Rankine Building Darwinbuilding1967

On 5 August 2014, FloWave TT was inaugurated by

Amber Rudd Amber Augusta Rudd (born 1 August 1963) is a British former politician who served as Home Secretary from 2016 to 2018 and Secretary of State for Work and Pensions from 2018 to 2019. She was a Member of Parliament (United Kingdom), Member of Pa ...

, UK Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change. The FloWave Ocean Energy Research Facility is a world-unique, diameter wave and current tank primarily focused on testing marine energy technologies and projects. In 2019 the data centre in the James Clerk Maxwell Building was named in honour of

Mary Somerville Mary Somerville ( ; , formerly Greig; 26 December 1780 – 29 November 1872) was a Scottish scientist, writer, and polymath. She studied mathematics and astronomy, and in 1835 she and Caroline Herschel were elected as the first female Honorar ...

and in 2020 the IT skills training room was named in honour of Xia Peisu.

Other facilities

* King's Buildings House, also known as KB House, is the student union at King's Buildings, run by

Edinburgh University Students' Association Edinburgh University Students' Association (EUSA) is the students' union at the University of Edinburgh, Scotland. The Association's aim is the advancement of education of Edinburgh students by representing and supporting them, and by promoting t ...

(EUSA). The Mayfield Bar and Blackford Lounge serve hot food and drinks on the ground floor, along with the KB House Shop and a games room. A full servery, Common Room and Kitchen, can be found upstairs, serving a wider variety of hot food. The union is also home to The Advice Place student advisory service and KB Gym, which includes two badminton and two squash courts. * KB Centre Shop is another EUSA-run shop, located in the KB Centre. The store stocks convenience products, alongside hot drinks, made-to-order sandwiches and hot food to take away. * Cafés include The Magnet Café in the James Clerk Maxwell Building, KB Café in the Noreen and Kenneth Murray Library, Upstairs Café in the Swann Building, XY Café in the Roger Land Building, Brucks Café in the Mary Bruck building, and The Eng Inn in the Hudson Beare Building.

King's Buildings 5 Mile Road Race

The KB 5 Road Race is organised every year by the Edinburgh University Hare and Hounds Running Club. It is usually held in late February or early March. The race starts and finishes inside the King's Buildings campus. The course consists of a road loop around the streets of south Edinburgh, with quite a few hills, though none of them steep. The race is popular with student and local club runners and usually attracts around 250 participants.

Notes

References

External links

College of Science and Engineering website

University of Edinburgh website

University of Edinburgh – King's Buildings campus map
{{coord, 55, 55, 22, N, 3, 10, 30, W, type:landmark, display=title Buildings and structures of the University of Edinburgh University and college campuses in the United Kingdom University of Edinburgh