Discover the Rich History of Coopers Hill

From Church to a Luxury Village

Today, the Victorian Gothic building is the centrepiece of a luxury retirement village, but the former Brunel University Runnymede campus has a long and colourful history. 

The land upon which Audley Coopers Hill stands was originally owned by the church and later granted to Lord Windsor by Henry VIII (16th Century). Two centuries later it passed to the Harcourt family, who built a new house on the site in the early 1800s which became known as "Coopershill".

Since that time the property has served as an engineering college, a refugee centre, an army convalescent home, student halls of residence and a training college (under various guises).

A brief history of our Surrey retirement village

Cooper’s Hill has a long and colourful history, with links to the Priory of Ankerwyke, Henry VIII, Edward VI, the Statue of Eros, now at the centre of London’s Piccadilly Circus, and more. 

Over the years the site has been passed through the hands of many notable owners, such as: 

• Andrew, Lord Windsor in 1539, having been granted it by King Henry VIII
• Thomas Smith, Secretary of State, given by Edward VI in 1550
• The Harcourt family, in the 18th Century, where they remained until the start of the 19th Century when they built a new house on the current site, and the property became known as ‘Coopershill’

• Sold off to Baron Albert Grant in the 19th Century
• Cooper's Hill student history began when it was bought by Indian Engineering College in 1870, which trained engineers for the Engineering Service of the Government of India

• After 35 years, in 1905, the college moved to Oxford University and the grand estate was purchased by Baron Cheylesmore, a British Army Officer in the First World War, and his wife, for use as a family home until Baron Cheylesmore was killed in a motor accident on 29th July 1925 (source: thebritishempire.co.uk). The family were devastated and a ballroom which was being built for his son’s 21st Birthday Party was left unfinished. Nowadays this building is housing the Audley Club and the Spa.

• In 1934, the site was bought by the London County Council. During World War Two, administrative staff were transferred over to Cooper’s Hill and in 1939 the beloved Statue of Eros was removed from the top of the Shaftesbury Memorial Fountain in Piccadilly Circus to spend the War period protected at the site until it’s safe return in 1948. The statue was housed in "Eros room", now serving as Hobbies room at Cooper's Hill.
• After the war, the Cooper’s Hill Emergency Training College was founded by the London County Council to address an urgent need for teachers and operated at Cooper’s Hill until 1951.
• The site of Cooper’s Hill was then acquired in 1951, by Shoreditch Training College.
• The expanding Shoreditch Training College had outgrown their accommodation in Pitfield Street, Hoxton, London. The College was a teacher training institution for teachers of handicrafts with it’s origins dating back to the 1900’s, when the London County Council set up a scholarship scheme for pupil teachers in handicrafts. The college merged with Brunel University in 1980, to later specialise in design and technology courses.
• In 2004, the Department of Design was moved to the main Brunel University Campus at Uxbridge and the Runnymede Campus became purely residential, providing accommodation for students from Royal Holloway College, selling Cooper's Hill in 2007 for £46.6M to the Oracle Group.
• In 2017 Audley Group and Royalton have been granted the permission for re-development of the campus for mixed usage, care facilities for elderly and private housing.

For more details about the history of Cooper's Hill please download "A Brief History Of Cooper's Hill" by Mr Towler, Audley Cooper's Hill homeowner.

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Special thanks to Dr Towler, owner at Audley Cooper's Hill, for his input and photographs. You can download the original presentation by Dr Towler below.