Wills Hall

Wills Hall is one of more than twenty halls of residence in the University of Bristol. It is located high on the Stoke Bishop site on the edge of the Bristol Downs, and houses c. 370 students in two quadrangles. Almost all of these students are in their first year of study. History The name Wills Hall reflects the university's 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 he financed 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 on the site of Downside House, formerly the residence of the Georges, a family of Bristol brewers. George Alfred Wills originally planned to base the residence around Goldney Hall in Clifton, next to Clifton Hill House. However, the Warden of the all-female Clifton Hill House felt that having so many young men so close to her residents would pose a significant 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, with the rooms arranged on staircases (called "houses", A to N). 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, that used to be displayed in the Warden's House at Wills, but which is now in the university's Special Collections Department: