imperial south kensington campus tour

tour route and stopping points

1. main entrance

2. city and guilds building - level 2 concourse

3. skempton building - level 2 concourse/outside level 1 entrance

4. sir alexander fleming building entrance

5. dangoor plaza

6. sherfield building - level 2 concourse

7. ACEX building - carbon capture plant

8. EEE building main entrance

9. dalby court

10. prince consort road - opposite royal albert hall

11. beit quad

12. prince’s gardens (optional)

13. [return to college main entrance]

1. main entrance

overview

college main entrance (PET scan, queen vic statue), exhibition road (museums), business school, college café, alumni centre

main entrance

• colourful image behind the reception is a positron emission tomography (PET) scan of the brain of on of Imperial’s academics. the technique is used in hospitals to generate 3D images of organs and internal structures, helping doctors to spot signs of disease and confirm diagnoses

• as well as the main entrance to Imperial, you have easy access to three world-class museums that are free to enter off Exhibition Road: the V&A, Science Museum, and Natural History Museum

queen victoria statue/history overview

• Statue of Queen Victoria originally sat outside the entrance to the Imperial Institute, the pre-cursor to Imperial’s campus built on this site, created in 1887 to celebrate Queen Victoria’s Jubilee, and opened in 1893.

• Queen Victoria’s husband Prince Albert was a key figure in organising the Great Exhibition of 1851, a Victorian global fair of culture and industry that provided the impetus for South Kensington becoming a hub for science, the arts and industry.

• He founded the famous museums, the formation of several educational colleges, and the Imperial Institute.

• In 1907, 3 of the colleges, the City and Guilds College, the Royal School of Mines and the Royal College of Science, signed a charter to merge to form one university, the Imperial College of Science and Technology. After series of mergers with leading Medical Schools, our School of Medicine was formed in 1997, and in 2003, Imperial College Business School received Faculty Status, though Imperial has offered management and economics studies since the 1970s.

imperial college business school

• Building was designed by Lord Norman Foster and includes the dramatic 6-storey stainless steel drum containing circular lecture theatres, which are based on the interacted Harvard Business School model.

• The Business School offers MBAs and a range of MSc programmes in finance, management and specialised courses such as Climate Change, Management and Finance.

• At undergraduate level, Life Sciences, Chemistry and Medical courses give the option of a year of management taught in the School, and from 2023, we offer a full 3-year BSc Economics, Finance and Data Science degree, combining in=depth economics and finance study with data science for a first-of-its-kind degree. This is the only undergraduate degree our business school offers.

pret

Pret is still fairly new and very popular - one of the many catering outlets on campus and offers a wide range of hot and cold options for breakfast, lunch, and everything in-between.

student hub

• open 5 days a week to all Imperial students

• provides general information and advice for students

• team are friendly and knowledgeable and help students with various questions and direct them to specialist services as appropriate

• on most Wednesday’s term time, the hub offers 25 minute 1-to-1 appointments for prospective students with a member of our Student Recruitment team, for you to ask any questions you may have about studying at Imperial. these appointments need to be booked and are published around 1 month in advance on our website.

2. City and Guilds Building - level 2 concourse

overview

CAGB, teaching areas and workshops (Mech Eng & Aeronautics)

City and Guilds Building / Mech Eng & Aeronautics

• CAGB built in the early 1960s, and stands on the site of the former City & Guilds College building, one of the constituent colleges of Imperial.

• on the concourse you can see it still houses the College’s original 19th century bell and clock mechanism, and a large turbine from Rolls Royce

• base for the Department of Mechanical Engineering and Deparment of Aeronautics

• aeronautics and mech eng departments both offer 4-year MEng courses, as do all of our engineering departments, and there is an opportunity to do a year abroad or a year in industry as part of the course.

• Aeronautics research themes include net-zero flight technologies, and sustainable growth in space.

• Mech Eng research themes are applied mechanics, thermofluids, and mechanics of materials

walking through to Skempton

• we aren’t able to go through every department on campus, but to give you a feel for the academic facilities & student spaces we will walk the route from CaGB through to the Skempton Building.

• we’ll go past some computer rooms, a wind tunnel, student breakout areas, and some labs and teaching spaces.

3. Skempton building

overview

Skempton Building / Civil Engineering, Wohl Reach Out Lab

Skempton Building

• Skempton building is named after a former Head of Department, sir Alec Skempton, who was instrumental in establishing Soil Mechanics as an academic discipline.

• home of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, we have just been past windows overlooking the departments Structures Lab (Structures Testing Lab, Concrete Durability lab).

• in the basement as part of our Hydrodynamics lab is an ocean wave basin, one of the best facilities of its kind (fun fact - it also feature in Sir David Attenborough’s) documentary ‘Attenborough and the Giant Sea Monster’ where he tested a robotic plesiosaurs swimming abilities).

• the undergraduate Civ Eng course offers the option of taking a year abroad, and for Master’s studies they have specialist MSc courses including Soil Mechanics and Earthquake Engineering

Wohl Reach Out Lab

• as we leave Skempton, look out for the Wohl Reach Out Lab on the right hand side

• purpose-built lab managed by our Outreach team for providing schoolchildren of many ages with practical, hands-on science activities to help maintain or inspire their interest in Science, Technology, Enginering, Maths and Medicine subjects

• windows are decorated with groundbreaking academic achievements by College staff

4. Sir Alexander Fleming Building

overview

SAF, Dyson School, RCS/Chemistry Building, ALERT Gormley statue, Farmer’s Market, Sir Ernst Chain Building - Wolfson Laboratories

Dyson School of Design Engineering

• Dyson School of Engineering is th enewest engineering department at Imperial.

• founded in 2014, assisted by a generous donation from the James Dyson Foundation.

• school is currently located in the former Post Office Building, which the College bought from our neighbour the Science Museum and after refurbishment opened in 2019.

• school is home to the undergraduate course MEng Design Engineering, which has two 6-month internships integrated into the course.

• school has 5 post-graduate courses, some run collaboratively with other institutions such as the Royal College of Art and the Grantham Institute (Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment)

• houses hackspaces and workshops, design studios and laboratories, presentation spaces and networking areas, as well as a range of creative breakout spaces.

ALERT - sculpture by Antony Gormley

• installed in September 2022

• ALERT is a sculptural artwork created for Imperial by the artist Antony Gormley, and was gifted by an alumnus.

• the 6-metre-high sculpture is made from blocks of weathering steel, which will naturally form a stable oxide coating over time.

• sculpture evokes the human form, balancing on the balls of the feet while squatting and surveying the world around it, the sculpture is awake and alert.

Farmer’s Market street food

• Street food farmer’s market takes place 9am-2pm on the road around ALERT evert Tuesday

• food stalls offer cuisines from around the world for lunch

Sir Alexander Fleming Building / Medicine itself

• Medical School & Biology Building

• named after Sir Alexander Fleming, who discovered penicillin in 1928 at St Mary’s Hospital Medical School. Sy Mary’s Hospital is now part of Imperial College NHS Trust.

• in 2022, the Faculty of Medicine celebrated 25 years since London medical schools came together to form Imperial’s medical school. Our medical teaching is not only at the main campus, but takes place across other campuses in west London based around hospitals - such as St Mary’s in Paddington.

• at undergraduate level, the Faculty of Medicine offers a 3-year BSc Medical Biosciences, and 6-year BSc/MBBS (Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery) Medicine intercalated degree (1 year of other study on top of the standard-length degree) and a brand new MSci in Medical Science and Innovation.

• at postgraduate level, we have 8 specialist departments including Brain Sciences and Infectious Disease

Loud Bird

another of the many popular eateries on campus, offering a selection of grilled chicken, burgers, wraps, vegan options, tasty sides and signature sauces

Chemistry Building

• Chemistry Department includes RSC-1, the remaining part of the Royal College of Science building, one of the founding colleges, and much more recently built Chemistry building.

• one of the largest departments across the UK and our activities cover the full range of fundamental theoretical and experimental chemistry, as well as research at chemistry’s interfaces with other disciplines such as materials, engineering, biology and medicine.

• Chemistry is based across 2 of the College’s campuses: the early years of our undergraduate teaching are carried out in South Kensington, while our research groups (including undergraduate research projects) are located in the Molecular Sciences Research Hub, at Imperial’s new White City campus.

Sir Ernst Chain Building - Wolfson Laboratories / Life Sciences

• houses Biochem, Cell and Molecular Biology, the Centre for Bioinformatics and the Centre for Structural Biology

• in the Department of Life Sciences we offer undergraduate Courses in 3 areas - Biology, Biochemistry and Biotechnology

5. Dangoor Plaza

overview

Dangoor Plaza, Queen’s Tower, Central Library, Library Café, Queen’s Tower Rooms, Sherfield support services, CLCC, Blythe

Dangoor Plaza

• this quandrangle is Dangoor Plaza, home to the Queen’s Tower and the Queen’s lawn.

• it is a popular, central space on campus and is packed with staff and students on sunny days

Queen’s Tower

• most iconic building on campus, more than 140 years old, and along with the stone lions at the base, is all that remains of the original Imperial Institute buildings.

• tower is 287 feet (87m) tall, clad in Portland stone and topped by a copper covered dome

• there are 324 steps from teh ground to the base of the dome and there is a viewing gallery which presents an unrivalled panorama of London.

• absence of tall buildings in the vicinity of the tower means that there is an uninterrupted view of London in all directions. it is estimated that the furthest visible point is 20 miles away in good viewing conditions.

• the Queen’s Tower recently underwent a restoration programme and was unveiled early this year (2026) as the 300,000 feet of tubing for the scaffolding was taken down, revealing the newly replaced copper dome.

Abdus Salam Library

• this is the main Imperial Library but is actually one of the many libraries we have across our different campuses.

• library was renamed in 2023 as the Abdus Salam Library in recognition of the Nobel Prize winning Physicist, Professor Salam, who joined Imperial in 1957.

• it is open 24 hours a day (except 11pm Friday to 10am Saturday), and the information hub is staffed until 9pm on weekdays

• there are different types of study space to suit your style of working, including silent study zones, quiet study zones, and group study areas

• you can find PCs on all levels, and there are iPads and laptops available for students to borrow

• librarians can help students with searching and finding information, using and connecting to e-journals, e-books and databases, and referencing and reference management software

• with longer opening hours than many of our other outlets, the Library Café is there whenever you need to refuel after a hard day’s work.

6. Sherfield Building - level 2 concourse

overview

Great Hall, Huxley, Blackett, SCR, Union Shops

Huxley Building, Computing and Mathematics

• the Huxley building is shared by the Department of Mathematics and the Department of Computing. in addition, the two departments coordinate to offer a joint Mathematics and Computer Science programme

• undergraduate maths courses give the option to specialise in areas including applied mathematics, mathematical physics, mathematical finance, pure mathematics and statistics

• computing specialisations include AI & Machine Learning and Software engineering. their research areas include AI and Data Science, and offer an MSc Computing for graduates from other academic disciplines.

Blackett Laboratory / Physics

• accessible through the Huxley Building you’ll find the Blackett Laboratory

• home of the Department of Physics, one of the largest in the UK, and named after professor of physics and Nobel Prize winner, Patrick Blackett.

• 1st year undergraduate Physics Labs were newly refurbished and equipped in 2021

• department’s research themes include fundamental Physics and Photon Science

Sherfield Building

• home to a range of student services to support you during your studies at Imperial

see separate flashcards for details of Levels 0 to 5

Sherfield Building Level 0

• Enterprise Lab - Imperial Enterprise Lab is the COllege’s dedicated entrepreneurship training centre for students and postdocs. We provide year-round extra-curricular programmes, masterclasses and community events, combined with 1-to-1 advice from over 150 expert coaches and mentors, to help you explore new business ideas and bring them to life.

• Enterprise Lab hosts monthly social and Community Collider than brings together entrepreneurs from across Imperial to make new friends and meet future collaborators

• Here is the home for The Venture Catalyst Challenge, which is Imperial College’s flagship entrepreneurial competition with a £100kk prize fund. Previous participants have gone on to rais over £200 million in funding and create 750 jobs.

Sherfield Building Level 1

Queen’s Tower Rooms - a space where students meet and eat lunch, but is also used for exams, and career fairs and industry events are often help here for current students to attend

Sherfield Building Level 2

• Great Hall: largest space on campus, seating up to 740 people — used for exams, events, performances and conferences. Closed at the moment for redevelopment, so that when it is not being used for events, it can be converted as teaching space. These spaces will be 3 lecture theatres

• SCR: catering outlet for staff, PhD students and their guests

• JCR: includes Neo Pizza, Japanese at Kimiko, and the Bakery - Imperial’s Starbucks café, Chinese bar, etc

• Both common rooms are also used as spaces for some clubs such as dance club and orchestra

Sherfield Level 3

• Accommodation Office: a central point of contact for students who have administrative enquiries, related to things like accommodation, student finance, student exchanges. Or if they need official documents proving their student status for things like Council Tax exemption or to open a student bank account.

• Centre for Language, Culture and Communication: provide a range of courses and activities in the fields of the humanities, languages and social sciences, to complement the STEMB studies on offer. This includes Imperial Horizons the flagship programme for undergraduates, where you can take a module outside of your degree subject. We offer a wide range of modules (languages, change makers, humanities) in a protected timetable slot to stimulate your personal, professional and intellectual growth.

• The CLCC also offers a range of discounted lunchtime and evening classes for all.

Sherfield Level 4

Student Counselling and Mental Health Advice Service: in addition to the Welfare Officers in your department, we also have a central Student Counselling and Mental Health Advice Service available to all students, offering appointments with counsellors, online resources, mental health workshops, and a reception open weekdays in term-time.

Sherfield level 5

• Disability Advisory Service: supports students who are disabled, have specific learning difficulties or have other short or long-term conditions. They have an extensive network of support available to help ensure our students realise their true potential, including an extensive network of departmental disability officers.

• Blythe Centre for Music and Visual Arts: supports a wide range of music and visual arts activities, including the Blythe Gallery where students can display their art and a suite of 10 music practice rooms, which are bookable free of charge.

• Careers Service: provides careers information, advice and guidance to current Imperial students and recent alumni (up to 3 years of graduating). With a range of online resources, events and 1-to-1 appointments available, whether you know exactly what you want to do after you graduate, or are just looking for guidance.

Imperial College Walkway

• JCR and SCR: two big cafeterias, JCR for undergrads and Master’s students, and SCR for PhD’s, RA’s, staff and professors

• Shops: 2 Union shops - drinks/snacks, and all your Imperial merchandise

7. ACEX Building - Carbon Capture Plant

overview

ACE Extension / Chemical Engineering, EEE Building main entrance / Electrical Engineering

ACE Extension / Chemical Engineering

• Department of Chem Eng of ICL is one of the oldest chem eng departments in the country and first offered undergraduate courses in 1937

Carbon Capture Pilot Plant

• We’re in front of the ChemEng Discovery Space that allows students and industry professionals alike to benefit from an unparalleled hands-on educational experience.

• This is the ABB control room, which is the nerve centre of the carbon capture plant beyond. You can see beyond the control room for a 4-storey high state-of-the-art carbon capture pilot plant representing a scaled-down chemical engineering plant.

• Built to the highest industrial standards, our plant is a core part of the training we provide to all of our chemical engineering undergraduates, typifying many of the features that graduate will encounter in the real world, and giving them skills that that will be essential in their future careers.

• Our futuristic carbon capture pilot plant is also a vital resource in the fight against climate change, demonstrating best practice in capturing and storing harmful CO2 before it can be released into the atmosphere.

EEE Building Main Entrance / Electrical Engineering

• department offers 2 streams of course at undergraduate level, Electrical and Electronic Engineering, and Electronic and Information Engineering

• their 6 specialist MSc courses include Future Power Networks and Applied Machine Learning

Digital Energy Demonstrator

• launched in partnership with the Energy Futures Lab and ABB as part of Imperial’s Integrated Development of Low-carbon Energy Systems (IDLES) Programme, the Digital Energy Demonstrator allows researchers to investigate the impact of new technologies on the power grid.

• It is used by researchers and students at Imperial to develop their understanding of possible configurations for future low-carbon energy systems, and enables teams at the College to take their ideas for how to build the power grid of the future and see how they would work in the real world.

8. Dalby Court

overview

Faculty Building, Bessemer Building, RSM, Grantham Institute for Climate Change, Energy Futures Lab

Dalby Court

• Faculty Building: home to President and Provost and other senior managers who are responsible for the running of the College. It is also home to a number of key administrative teams like HR, the legal team, College news and media and the alumni team.

• Energy Futures Laboratory: looks at sustainable power, clean fossil fuels, low carbon transport, energy infrastructure and policy and innovation. Also runs our Master’s course in Sustainable Energy Futures.

• Grantham Institute — Climate Change and the Environment: One of the College’s 6 global challenge institutes, which are responsible for looking at the big problems affecting the world. Build with a £12 million donation from the Grantham family, it conducts research into climate change for a sustainable future.

Bessemer Building / Bioengineering

• home of dept. of Bioengengineering, where you will also find the Institute of Biomedical Engineering, and the Royal British Legion Centre of Blast Injuries Studies.

• at undergrad level we offer different approaches to the discipline — biomedical engineering, molecular bioengineering, and our new BSc Biomedical Technology Ventures courses. The BSc had its first intake in 2023, and is delivered jointly with the Business School, combining bioengineering studies alongside courses in management and entrepreneurship.

Royal School of Mines

• RSM was established in 1851, and was one of the constituent Colleges that became Imperial. It is now home to the Dept of Earth Science and Engineering and the Department of Materials

• The historic RSM frontage has featured in a number of films, including the Ipcress File, Sliding Doors, and most recently Kingsman starring Colin Firth (in which it was then blown up in the film).

then talk about Earth Science

Earth Science

• undergraduate course options are Geology, Geophysics and Earth and Planetary Science, all with opportunities for field trips as part of the degree

• our location gives us easy access to one of the finest fossil and mineral collections in the world, hosted at the Natural History Museum

• Museum staff, who are world experts in geochemistry, mineralogy, mineral resources and palaeontology, also contribute to our teaching in Earth Sciences.

Materials

• All engineering structures and devices are made of materials — materials science and engineering is the interdisciplinary field that studies, designs and develops new materials — it draws on the fundamental principles of chemistry, physics and engineering to solve problems that would benefit society.

• Department of Materials research areas are broad and include energy, transport, novel electronic devices, and healthcare.

9. Prince Consort Road — opposite Royal Albert Hall

• Royal Albert Hall: famous concert venue on our doorstep, but also where most Imperial students have their graduation ceremony

• Behind the RAH you will find Kensington Gardens and HydePark — a large green area, only a short distance from our campus

10. Beit Quad

overview

Union (Imperial College Union, Student Accommodation), Halls

Beit Quad - Imperial College Union

• A community of all ICL students working to achieve the best experience for every student and helping every member realise their potential

• Led by a team of sabbatical officer Trustees (a President and 4 Deputy Presidents) who are Imperial students and are elected to the one-year role by current students. Their job is to represent the student voice on College committees and ensure that the College remains attuned to the needs of its student community.

• The Union offers a huge range of activities including sports clubs, societies, volunteering and projects you can get involved in - over 380 to choose from.

• The Union building has student bars; a nightclub, eating facilities, a Union concert hall with cinema sized screen for live performances and regular film screenings, student activity centre with a suite of computers and support staff too assist student volunteers with organising activities and evenets

• The Union bar is called FiveSizEight because there are 568ml in a pint. Metric is the Union’s nightclub space, with a dancefloor, lighting and sound system. There is also a quiz that runs most Thursday nights!

• Advisors are available in the ICU Advice Centre and can provide independent advice and guidance on academic issues, accommodation, money advice, employment rights, consumer rights, international student issues and legal matters.

• ICU has 9 Liberation & Community networks - BME (Black and Minority Ethnic), LGBTQ+, Mental health, Disabilities, Ethics and Environment, Gender Equality, Interfaith, International and Working Class. They are run by students who identify with, ally with, or are interested in each particular group. They organise campaigns, build community and are an important support network for their members.

Student Accommodation

• Fills the South, East, and West sides of the Quad. We have a large variety of accommodation on offer both on campus and in other locations in West London.

• Accommodation is guaranteed to all undergraduates in their 1st year (as long as they accept Imperial as their first-choice university).

• In the halls that we’re looking at here, prices for this year range from £155/week for a standard twin room to £308/week for an ensuite single

• The Student Accommodation Office provides lots of help for students who want to find a home in the private sector, and whether for first year, for subsequent years, or for postgraduate students.

11. Prince’s Gardens

overview

Ethos, Eastside and Southside Halls, Multi-Faith Centre, Essentials shop

Ethos Sports Centre

• basic membership is free and with that you can attend classes or book the sports hall activities.

• or, you can pay just £80 for the whole year it and gives you access to the swimming pool and gym.

• has a 25m swimming pool in the basement along with a sauna, steam room and spa pool

• as well as the gym and swimming facilities, it also has a climbing wall, a large sports hall, a studio with daily classes (from Bodypump to Yoga), a sports treatment room and squash courts

Southside, Eastside, Chaplaincy

• The other accommodation based in South kensington for undergraduates are Southside and Eastside Halls that face onto Prince’s Gardens

• Southside also houses the Health Centre and Dental Practice.

• Eastside includes a restaurant/bar. ‘Essentials’ is a supermarket where you can get all your essentials.

• The Chaplaincy Multi-faith Centre in number 15 Princes Gardens, and offers a quiet space for meditation or prayer, and a place for faith groups to meet.

• Imperial is also home to its own secret garden, located behind the stretch of buildings where Ethos is. It’s where Imperial College Environmental Society keeps its plants and bees.