Blue Ice

Senate House is the administrative centre of the University of London, situated in the heart of Bloomsbury, London between the School of Oriental and African Studies to the north, with the British Museum to the south. The main building contains the University of London's Central Academic Bodies and... Activities, including the offices of the Vice-Chancellor of the University, the entire collection of the Senate House Library, and eight of the ten research institutes of the School of Advanced Study . The Art Deco building was constructed between 1932 and 1937 as the first phase of a large uncompleted scheme designed for the University by Charles Holden. It consists of 19 floors and is 210 feet high, making it the second tallest building in London when it was completed. The building's use by the Ministry of Information during the Second World War inspired George Orwell's description of the Ministry of Truth in his novel Nineteen Eighty-Four. After the First World War the University of London, then based at the Imperial Institute in Kensington was in urgent need of new office and teaching space to allow for its growth and expansion.
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