Kingston University, Kingston Hill Campus

In 1832 Earl Spencer had granted a 99 year lease to William Ogle Hunt who built Kenry House, at first called Coombe Wood, 'a minor Gothic villa' (Nikolaus Pevsner) but it was later extended and much altered, particularly from the 1860s. The name Kenry House dates from 1874 when ownership passed to the 4th Earl of Dunraven, son of Baron Kenry. The massive brick retaining wall dating from the late C18th/early C19th and 3 to 4 metres high still survives today. It once supported the garden front of Kenry House and has sloping brick buttresses each c.1m wide. From 1933 the house was empty until 1950 when house and grounds became part of the Gipsy Hill Training College. To the west of the house are the former brick stables, and on the east wall a stone relief, possibly Coade, of a reclining female figure. A gothic lodge remains by the road.

In 1835 Earl Spencer granted a 999 year lease to barrister Samuel Smith, uncle to Florence Nightingale, who built Coombe Hurst to the south west and lived here until 1881. Between 1885 and 1914 Captain R C de Grey Vyner owned Coombe Hurst, and among his visitors was the Prime Minister William Gladstone. The house was then empty until 1923 before Baron de Forest, a baron of the old Austrian Empire and Liberal MP, came to live here. It was saved from demolition in 1933 when the Chairman of Wandsworth Greyhound Stadium, Mr Parkes, bought and modernised the house, living here until 1940. Empty again until 1948, Gipsy Hill Training College then acquired the property and in 1950 expanded further when it purchased Kenry House.

Gipsy Hill Training College was established as a teacher training college in 1917; it amalgamated with Kingston Polytechnic in 1975. The polytechnic had started life as Kingston Technical Institute in 1899, becoming a Regional College of Technology in 1957, Kingston Polytechnic in 1970 when it merged with Kingston College of Art, later becoming Kingston University in 1992. The University grounds at Kingston Hill contain remnants of the ancient woodland with fine mature oak trees pre-dating the 1830s, together with trees planted in the C19th such as beech, sweet chestnut, larch, Scots pine and whitebeam. To the west the grounds of Coombe Hurst consist of a fine lawn leading down to a small pond at the bottom. A small stream flows under a rustic bridge towards a grove of rhododendrons, which are pervasive in areas of the site. The Kingston Hill Campus now houses the Business, Law, Education, Music and Health and Social Care Studies faculties, and modern buildings have been added over recent years, such as the Nightingale Learning Resources Centre in 2008 and a 300-seat lecture theatre, as well as new green spaces and meeting areas. A new teaching building is due to open in 2012.