University of Westminster celebrates King Charles III as new monarch

The University of Westminster celebrates the coronation of King Charles III and his wife Camilla, Queen Consort of the United Kingdom.

Photo: The then Prince of Wales visits the Cavendish Campus in 1980

Following numerous royal encounters over the University’s 180-year-long history, King Charles III, formerly His Royal Highness Prince Charles, visited the University on several occasions. First in 1980 when he visited Cavendish Campus in his role as President of the CNAA, the national degree-awarding authority for the UK at that time, to take part in a one-day conference on Engineering degree courses.

Then Prince Charles stood with a group of people outside the University — Photo: King Charles III visits the Polytechnic of Central London (now the University of Westminster) in 1980

He later opened the Polyclinic, a ground-breaking teaching and research clinic for complementary medicines, at the University’s Cavendish Campus on 14 May 1995. During the visit he described the University as “revolutionary” and saying: “I heartily support the University of Westminster’s commitment to integrated medicine. You are pioneers here – and it is the patients who stand to benefit.”

King Charles and a woman in a science lab

The Polyclinic remains open to this day, providing low-cost access for the general public to treatments in acupuncture, Chinese herbal medicine and Western herbal medicine.

King Charles III also visited the University’s Harrow Campus in 2004, as part of the Urban Sound Live programme which was hosted by the University and offered by the Prince’s Trust. Whilst at the Harrow Campus, he encountered musician Jay-Z, who was headlining the Prince’s Trust’s Urban Music Festival.