UCL denames buildings named after eugenicists

The decision was made by UCL’s President & Provost Professor Michael Arthur and ratified by Council - the university’s governing body - following a recommendation from UCL’s Buildings Naming and Renaming Committee.

Signs on the Galton Lecture Theatre, Pearson Building and Pearson Lecture Theatre will be taken down with immediate effect. Other changes to the names on maps and signposts around the UCL estate will take place as soon as is practicable.

Victorian scientist Francis Galton coined the term eugenics and endowed UCL with his personal collection and archive along with a bequest for the country’s first professorial Chair of Eugenics. Karl Pearson was the first holder of this chair.

The move is one step in a range of actions aimed at acknowledging and addressing the university’s historical links with the eugenics movement. It follows a series of recommendations made by members of the Inquiry into the History of Eugenics at UCL, which reported earlier this year.

A Response Group of senior UCL representatives – including academic staff, equality experts and the Students’ Union – is being formed to consider...