Welcome to the Guy's Campus Tour

King’s was founded almost two centuries ago. Over that time we’ve grown to have over 35,000 students from over 185 different countries, meaning that we have a diverse student body that reflects the vibrant city we live in. We’re one of the top 37 universities in the world according to QS.

Our students study in one of our nine faculties, institutes and schools. Based on this campus are:

• Faculty of Dentistry, Oral & Craniofacial Sciences
• Faculty of Life Sciences & Medicine
• Undergraduate students from the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience

The Florence Nightingale Faculty of Nursing, Midwifery & Palliative Care is based at our Waterloo Campus, but students in this faculty will also use the facilities at Guy’s.

This is our Health subjects campus, but King’s is a multi-faculty university teaching a wide range of different subjects; at our other central London campuses are the King's Business School, Faculty of Arts & Humanities, Faculty of Social Science & Public Policy, Faculty of Natural & Mathematical Sciences, and the Dickson Poon School of Law.

At University, you'll be taught using a variety of different methods: 

• Lectures are held in a large room, sometimes with over 400 students. The academic will deliver a talk, and whilst there may be the opportunity to interact and ask questions, you’ll mainly be listening and taking notes. The lectures are usually recorded, so you can watch them again online afterwards, and if you’ve got any questions then you can email your lecturers.
• Tutorials are delivered to a much smaller group, typically of 10-15 students. You meet with a member of the teaching staff and discuss that week’s topic, including all of the reading and worksheets you have done.
• Students studying clinical health subjects will also have placements. You’ll learn on the job, supervised by experienced practitioners as you deliver healthcare to real patients.

If you’re studying a subject like biomedical sciences and psychology, you’ll have regular laboratory work in one of our labs here on campus. Independent study is an important part of learning for these subjects; you’ll be expected to do a lot of reading and research on your own.

• We have two dissection labs, the largest of which can accommodate 160 students/80 cadavers at a time. Our medical students undertake human cadaveric dissection; and students of other medical-related subjects, such as Dentistry, Biomedical Science and Sport & Exercise Medical Sciences, also have teaching in the dissection labs
• Medical, Nursing, Midwifery and Physiotherapy students have regular teaching and assessments at the Chantler Simulation & Interactive Learning Centre, with simulated wards, home care settings and anatomical models. This is a helpful environment for procedures to be learnt and practised without risk of harm to patients.

You’ll also find that you will be assessed in lots of different ways, such as

• Exams
• Coursework
• Placement – where you’re assessed by a qualified mentor on your performance during the placement.
• OSCEs (Objective Structured Clinical Examinations). These are practical tests for healthcare students, which test skills, ranging from taking medical history to examining a patient to taking blood.

This is the main library at Guy’s Campus, and it houses the books and resources relevant to the subjects taught here. Within King’s Libraries & Collections you have access to over a million books and ebooks, thousands of ejournals, hundreds of databases as well as archival materials. As we’re part of the University of London, you can use the libraries of most other academic libraries in London too. It’s open 24/7 most of the year, which is really helpful.

We have Wifi across all of our campuses and halls, as well as computer rooms like the one you’ll see on your right here, and there’s an app that shows you where there are computers available. We also have a bank of laptops that can be loaned for up to 72 hours at a time, free of charge.

Student services will be your first stop for accessing services at King’s, providing practical information and guidance for you throughout your studies. They’re based within the Waterloo Campus library, and they do everything from replacement ID cards to guidance on matters like housing, visas and money and they can signpost you to other services when necessary. They can help offer holders who haven’t started studying at King’s yet if you have any questions about funding or visas. 

King’s also has a Disability Advisory Service, who support students with a disability or long term medical condition. The Disability Advisory Service can support students before they begin their studies at King’s.

Located in Bush House is the King’s Foundations – they run academics preparation courses to help international students prepare for their studies at King’s.

Pre-sessional English courses are offered in the summer to enhance a student’s English Language, and King’s International Foundation is a one-year programme with eight academic pathways leading to undergraduate degrees at King’s

There is a second library on campus called Wills Library which was the original medical school library and is now a 24 hour silent study area with computing facilities.

We are now in the Guy’s Quad. If you look up at New Hunt’s House, you’ll see that there are pictures on the glass fins on the side of the building. This artwork celebrates the contribution of King’s scientists to the discovery of the structure of the DNA molecule.

One of these scientists was called Rosalind Franklin. Franklin joined King’s as a research associate in 1951, working on a project to study the structure of DNA alongside a scientist called Maurice Wilkins.

Franklin and her PhD student discovered two forms of DNA: A and B. They took x-ray images of these. One of these images, showing DNA’s famous double helix, has become known as Photo 51.

Franklin's work was a crucial part in the discovery of DNA. Maurice Wilkins from King’s was awarded a Nobel Prize for his work in 1962. Rosalind Franklin died of ovarian cancer aged 37, four years before the Nobel prize was awarded.

This is the campuses central hub where you can find students located in one area, amidst the hustle and bustle of the city. There is also a local cat on campus called Lenny, who you may be able to spot around campus and is well-loved by both students and staff.

The Quad also has a Memorial Arch, which commemorates the staff and students of Guy’s Hospital and its medical school who died in conflict. The first man on the list, Harold Ackroyd, trained as a doctor at Guy’s and won a Victoria Cross for gallantry in tending to wounded soldiers. This is the highest British military award for valour.

In summer, the Quad we’re in at the moment is often very busy at lunchtime, with students, hospital staff, and patients all enjoying the open space. During exam time, the Students’ Union hosts free activities, such as ping pong and interactive games.

This is the General Classroom, where a variety of practicals are taught, such as those which involve using microscopes.

We are one of only a few medical schools who continue to offer full body dissection, and the dissecting rooms are upstairs. Every year King’s staff and students take part in a Service of Thanksgiving at Southwark Cathedral, held to commemorate those selfless people who donated their bodies for the benefit of medical education.

The Gordon Museum of Pathology. It is the UK’s largest teaching medical museum with a growing collection of approximately 8,000 samples. The oldest specimen dates from 1608, and we continue to add samples each year. It is an invaluable resource for our healthcare students who use it to bring their textbooks and lectures to life. As well as the full body dissection, it’s really helpful to have this resource so that we can see rarer diseases too. The Gordon Museum can also be used as a study space for Healthcare students.

One of the most interesting things in the Gordon Museum is Alan Billis, who was a taxi driver from Torquay. He’s been a resident of the Gordon Museum since 2012, and he is a favourite of the staff and students here at Guy’s. After finding out he had terminal lung cancer, Alan read about a Channel 4 project on mummification, and decided to donate his body.

The project used 3000-year-old techniques practised by the ancient Egyptians. Beeswax, oils and resins were used to preserve the body, in addition to placing him for long periods of time in natron, a salt made from sodium carbonate and sodium bicarbonate. If the researchers performed Alan’s mummification successfully, he could be here in the Gordon Museum for thousands of years.

The Channel 4 documentary Mummifying Alan – Egypt’s Last Secret won a BAFTA. As well as enabling on-going research, Alan exemplifies the selflessness of people who donate their bodies to science and research.

Attached to the Gordon Museum is the Museum of Life Sciences, which houses a collection of animal-related materials, ranging from taxidermy to fossils.

Some of our courses will require you to attend an interview as part of the selection process, such as Medicine or Dentistry. ​At King’s, our interviews take the form of an online panel interview, held on Microsoft Teams. During these online interviews, two interviewers will ask a series of questions touching on your experiences and skills, and also posing scenario based questions, testing a variety of skills, such as communication, leadership and more.​ As we mentioned before, these are online, so you don’t have to travel onto campus for your interview.

The Museum of Life Sciences is housed in the Hodgkin Building, the building is named after Thomas Hodgkin, a physician at Guy's Hospital.

This small museum houses collections of Botanical, Zoological and Pharmaceutical specimens, some dating back to the early 19th Century as well as some as some rare and important specimens, these include the skeleton of Thylacinus the extinct marsupial wolf.

Although the museum is not regularly open to the public, visitors are welcomed to the occasional Exhibitions and Open Days.

Henriette Raphael House was originally built as a home for nurses – the first of its kind in London. The idea was that it would provide a home to all the nurses of Guy’s Hospital next, although it only had around 200 bedrooms. Today, Guy’s and St Thomas’ Hospitals have nearly 6000 nurses!

Henriette Raphael House contains two cafés, teaching spaces, the academic centre, lecturers’ offices, the counselling service and our careers service. The Counselling Service is free and open to all of our students.

The Careers Service offers careers guidance, interview practice, help with your CV, and can connect students with employers, whether they’re looking for part time student jobs or full time graduate jobs. They also offer paid internships that are exclusive to King’s students and recent graduates, which are a really good way of getting relevant work experience.

The Academic Centre is where you will come to hand in paper copies of your coursework and any other academic paperwork.

Many lecturers have offices here, and all teaching staff. If you’ve got any questions then you can email your lecturers. In addition, every student has a member of staff from their department assigned to them as their personal tutor. Your personal tutor is responsible for your overall welfare, both academic and pastoral. They’ll schedule a meeting with you about once a term, but you can also email your lecturers with any questions you have.

Many of our students have the opportunity to study abroad as part of their degree. For example, students in the school of Bioscience Education can spend a semester or year abroad, depending on their degree programme, in countries including Australia and the USA.

Healthcare students may have what’s known as an elective as part of their course. For example, medical students spend eight weeks on a placement of their choice, usually overseas, where you work alongside local healthcare staff. Destinations can vary from Tanzania to Singapore, depending on your subject.

Whatever your level, you can get involved with sport and fitness at King’s. This is our on-site gym, open only to King’s students and hospital staff. It offers gym equipment, aerobics and yoga classes, and even a climbing wall. We also have a 25m swimming pool around the corner. There’s a Health and Fitness Centre at Waterloo, on this campus here at Guy’s, and a gym that opened in October 2018 at the Strand Campus.

There are around 70 different sports clubs, which are run by students for students. With everything from rugby to karate to Archery, you can continue to practice a sport you’re already involved with, or pick up something new. Sports clubs from different universities across the UK compete against each other in a league known as BUCS (British Universities and Colleges Sport). There’s also a great programme called BeActive which is open to all students at King’s. Often taking place right on your doorstep in halls of residence, you can enjoy different weekly social sport and fitness activities such as running clubs, yoga and touch rugby sessions regardless of experience or how sporty you think you are.

The Chantler Simulation and Interactive Learning Centre is set up to enable healthcare students to work interprofessionally to learn a full range of clinical skills in a simulated clinical environment. Students studying clinical healthcare courses will all use this facility.

The simulated clinical environment includes 8 hospital bed bays, a range of medical equipment, and actors who play patients. There are mannequins which talk, breath and have a pulse. They can be used to teach a variety of skills, such as identifying abnormal heart rhythms and defibrillation, Students learn everything from advanced life support to moving and handling, skills which they can then put into practice when they are on placement in hospitals.

Here you can see Guy’s Hospital, which is a large hospital where many of our clinical healthcare students have placements.

That building is Guy’s Tower. It’s the tallest hospital building in the world, at 34 storeys tall, and it houses our Dental Institute on floors 18 to 30. With a lecture theatre on the 30th floor, it has probably got the best views of any dental school!

London Bridge (the bridge, not the station) has fallen down and been rebuilt many times since Roman times. The alcove on your right hand side comes from the medieval stone arch version of London Bridge.

The statue in the alcove is the famous 19th century poet John Keats. He studied medicine here at Guy’s, but by the end of the year in which he received his apothecary’s licence in 1816, he decided that he wanted to be a poet and not a surgeon. Choosing the right subject to study at university is a really important decision to make, and it is important to think about your own interests and skills when making this decision. Perhaps Keats would have been happier studying English Literature at our Strand Campus?

You’re probably wondering where you might live while you’re studying at King’s. The good news is that all undergraduates and international postgraduates are guaranteed a place in halls during first year, so long as you meet the conditions and apply by the deadline.

We’ve got a wide variety of halls, all of which are within zones 1 and 2, the most central parts of London. For example, Moonraker and Great Dover Street are only a short walk from here, but it’s really easy to get here regardless of which halls you’re in. You may also like to live in Intercollegiate Halls, which located in Bloomsbury. We share them with other University of London students at institutions such as SOAS, LSE or UCL.

You can find out much more about how to apply for accommodation on our Residences webpage. After first year, students move into shared houses with friends. The University of London Housing Services help by registering landlords who sign up to a Code of Good Practice, checking contracts and offering legal advice.

We’re in the Student’s Union, which at King’s is known as KCLSU.

The students’ union is a democratic organisation run by students for students, and it’s here to ensure that every King’s student has the best student experience possible.

The Shed (café) is based in the East Wing and is one of the key social spaces on campus. Within this section we also have Guy’s Bar for meeting up with friends and socialising during the day and into the night! Just opposite us is the West Wing which houses the Student Centre and activity and meeting rooms which students can book out for society activities.

One of the things that KCLSU organises is Welcome Month. It’s designed to help students settle in and make friends as quickly as possible, with over 150 events on offer. These include quizzes, karaoke, club nights, picnics and more. There are even special events for international students, students living at home and postgraduates. A highlight of Welcome Week is the Welcome Fair. It’s your chance to find out about all the clubs and societies on offer, as well as picking up lots of freebies.

The Students’ Union also fulfils an important role in terms of advising students. It’s an organisation that’s completely independent, including from the university. So, it offers advice that is free, confidential, impartial and non-judgemental for anyone who needs it.

KCLSU is responsible for assisting with the organisation of all the student-run societies. Societies are a great way to make friends, because they bring together a group of people with a shared interest. Some of our societies include:

• Comedy Soc - where you can learn stand-up or sketch, as well watching student comedy shows.
• Jazz soc - whose members get together and listen to jazz as well as performing jazz
• Opera Soc - gain experience in opera production, direction and artistic design.

If you want to start your own society, then KCLSU will give you support to do so.

On Wednesday afternoons there is also no teaching/lectures because this is time dedicated for involvement in societies/sport events.

We are outside Guy’s Chapel, our final stop on the tour. The Chapel is looked after by the Chaplaincy

The Chaplaincy is a multi-faith service offering listening and support to students. They organise worship on campus for anyone who is interested, as well as free lunches and trips to places such as Canterbury and the Tower of London.

There are over 400,000 students in London and it is a really great place to study. There is always lots going on, from free festivals to discounted theatre performances.

We’re part of the University of London, meaning that our students can access the joint students’ union, Student Central.

I will tell you a bit about the area we are in now. Next to our campus is The Shard, the tallest building in Europe. Just behind the Shard is London Bridge station, which has excellent tube, train, and bus connections. Borough Market is one of London’s oldest and largest food markets. It has been here for over a thousand years! It sells a wide variety of food, from hot lunches to fine French cheese.

The brown tower (in the direction of Borough High Street, on the other side of the road, about four stories tall) you see over there is part of the original St Thomas’ Hospital. Inside it is the Old Operating Theatre Museum, which is a restored 19th century operating theatre that’s open to visitors.

You’ll notice that these two buildings look similar, but actually have several differences. This is because the Boland House side was heavily damaged in the 1940s, and rebuilt as a perfect copy, while the Chapel is an original part of Guy’s hospital.

In September 2018, Boland House was reopened as the Science Gallery London, a space where arts and science collide! It houses exhibitions, workshops, performances and festivals within its spaces, and within this public square (here!). The café remains open to the public, along with the gallery spaces.

Thank you for joining the tour today, I hope you enjoyed your visit to King’s College London and you’ve got a feel for why all of the students studying here chose King’s.

If you want to learn more about our range of subjects, you can explore our collection of recorded introduction talks on our On-demand open day, on our website. We will also be running an Open Day on campus again in the summer, and you can find more details of this also on our Open Day website.

If you have any questions for the admissions team, we recommend contacting the King’s Advisors on newstudents@kcl.ac.uk. You can also connect with current students and members of staff directly via our UniBuddy chat service.

Finally, if you were looking for a tour of the accommodation sites, you can contact the King’s Residences team through their webpage to arrange a viewing.