Wills Hall - History

History

The name of Wills Hall reflects the university-wide connection with the Wills family. The fortune made by their famous tobacco empire, W. D. & H. O. Wills and later Imperial Tobacco, enabled Henry Overton Wills III to fund the University's foundation in 1908 with a pledge of £100,000 and many of its finest buildings, such as the Wills Memorial Building. His son George Alfred Wills provided the money to build a hall of residence in memory of his brother Henry Herbert Wills. He originally planned to base the hall around Goldney Hall in Clifton, next to the existing hall of Clifton Hill House. However, the warden of the all-female Clifton Hill House felt that having so many young men so close to "her girls" would be a grave moral risk, and demanded that the new hall be sited at least two miles away. Thus Downside House in Stoke Bishop was purchased, and a quadrangle of accommodation blocks erected around it according to the design of Sir George Oatley. It has been designated by English Heritage as a grade II listed building. A Latin inscription on the exterior of the dining hall dedicated the hall to Henry Herbert.

Wills Hall was officially opened by Winston Churchill in 1929, then the Chancellor of the University. When he returned to open Churchill Hall in the late 1950s, he allowed himself to be "kidnapped" and his release was allowed only after he signed the following statement, now displayed in the Warden's Lodge at Wills:

"I Winston Spencer Churchill MP, CH Chancellor of the University of Bristol, Declare there be no Finer Hostel than Wills Hall among the Universities of the British Empire".

The initial quadrangle sufficed until rising student numbers precipitated the building of a further accommodation block, 'XYZ', which was opened in 1961. Another expansion in 1990 completed this 'New Quad' as 'UVW' block was built. This new block featured en-suite rooms and a conference centre, in an effort to make Wills more competitive as a venue for the conference market, which was becoming an important source of revenue for cash-strapped universities.

Having initially been an all-male institution, Wills became the last hall to accept both sexes in 1985, despite opposition from the more 'traditionalist' wing of the Wills Hall Association. In that first year, seventy women took up residence alongside 200 men, but over the next few years female numbers quickly rose, and Wills today is equally split between the sexes. However, due to the shared bathroom facilities, staircases in old quad and floors in XYZ blocks are single-sex.