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At least twenty serious alternative locations for the new College
were considered by its executive Provisional Committee including
land between Westminster Bridge and Lambeth Palace, Paddington,
Somers Town, Edgware Road and even the vacant Buckingham Palace.
One proposal favoured by the poet laureate, Robert Southey, was
the East End of London. This would be convenient for the sons of
commercial and professional men residing in the new suburbs and
avoid competition for business with the 'London University' in Bloomsbury.
Southwark was another popular choice and members of the Committee
visited a site close to Guy's Hospital in July 1828. The area boasted
sufficient open space, cheap lodging for students and a suitable
chapel in the form of St Saviour's. The Committee was impressed
with the development potential of the parish in an area earmarked
for regeneration. However, it was a vacant plot adjoining the new
Zoological Gardens in Regent's Park that
proved the strongest proposal until powerful local residents complained.
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