Whiteknights Park

Whiteknights Park is some two miles south of the centre of the town of Reading in the English county of Berkshire.

The campus is 1.3 square kilometres (321 acres) in size[1] and includes lakes, conservation meadows and woodlands as well as being home to most of the university's academic departments and several halls of residence.

In 1819, George Spencer, by now the Duke of Marlborough, became bankrupt and moved to his family home at Blenheim Palace at Woodstock in Oxfordshire.

In the grounds, cast-iron or wooden baskets filled with scarlet sage or the then exotic begonias were scattered throughout the lawns.

Mary Soames, who wrote a book about the 5th Duke of Marlborough and his gardens in Whiteknights and Blenheim remarked that the 280 acres were "too small a canvas" for the marquesses' "broad brush".

[3] During the Second World War, part of the park closest to the Earley Gate entrance was used for 'temporary' government offices, and several ranges of these single story, brick built, corridor and spur buildings still stand.

The centre of the campus is bisected into two unequal halves by a chain of lakes which are crossed by several pedestrian bridges but with no vehicular link.

To the west of the lakes can be found most of the academic departments, catering services, the university administration and the students union building.

Previously known as the HumSS (Humanities and Social Sciences) building before being renamed in commemoration of Edith Morley in 2017, it is sometimes nicknamed 'The Maze' due to its significant size and complex layout of corridors.