Why these thirteen moments?

King’s Past emerged from a series of conversations in different parts of the university about the contested heritage of monuments of King’s. Rather than dealing with each monument and each moment separately, thsoe conversations spawned a project which engages King’s past deep in time, and broad across space, engaging as much of the King’s community as possible.

Those leading the project quickly recognised there could be no single seamless narrative about the history of King’s College London. Instead of telling a single story, or creating a single list of heroes and villains, we’ve brought the history of King’s together in 13 moments. Each represents a theme, which was particularly significant at a particular moment in time. The moments provide focus for research into the details of King’s past. But they also provide a way for us to reflect on the relation between the past and future. Each moment poses a question for King’s and its community now, helping reflection on King’s past to shape our collective future.

King’s Past draws from the range of work and enthusiasm which already existed around the investigation of King’s past. It pulls in a range of existing work including:

• work by King’s archives, to catalogue and publish material on the history of King’s
• Investigating the King’s Colonial Past module, taught in the history department but available to all King’s students
• research into Sir Robert Clayton and Sir Thomas Guy, commissioned by Guys and St Thomas’ Trust
• efforts led by KCLSU and academics to ‘liberate the curriculum’
• Strandlines project, into the history of life around King’s site on the Strand
• research by historians and others into the history of empire, and British public institutions in the Empires and Decolonisation research hub