10 Things You Didn’t Know About QMUL

Think you know Mile End because you’ve fed the canal geese twice? Nope. Queen Mary hides royal history, science pods, and a cemetery you probably walked past countless times. Here’s the good stuff to drop on campus tours and in group chat, folks. 

• Novo Cemetery: History Between Seminars

An 18th-century Sephardi Jewish cemetery sits inside the campus like it owns the place. Quiet, leafy, and oddly calming (during the day). Great if you have a lot of time and are a gothic enthusiast.
Student tip: You can have a picnic right close to it. Amazing, isn’t it?

• People’s Palace: A King Broke In His Shoes Here

The Great Hall’s big reopening in 1937 doubled as King George VI’s first public engagement. Now it hosts talks, lectures, and your least favorite exam. Range.
Student tip: Use the study spots in the corners.

• The Octagon: Budget British Museum Energy

A domed reading room that looks ready for a period drama. Shelves, symmetry, silence. Your essay will feel smarter by association.
Student tip: Get there early for a clean shot of your dark academia-inspired TikTok. Sometimes it is closed, though!

• Centre of the Cell: A Pod Above Real Labs

A glowing pod hangs over working biomedical labs. Next door sits the spiky Neuron Pod that looks like a sea creature with a PhD. Perched in a glowing “pod” above real biomedical labs at Whitechapel, this public engagement space later gained the eye-popping freestanding “Neuron Pod” designed by the late architect Will Alsop.
Student tip: Book ahead. School groups move faster than you think.

• Barts Pathology Museum: Delightfully Grim

Three mezzanines and thousands of specimens. It is half teaching space, half “did I just time-travel.”
Student tip: Halloween is chaotic.

• Charterhouse Square: Study Spot Over a Plague Pit

Crossrail found a medieval 14th-century Black Death burial ground under Charterhouse Square. Now it is a research hub and coffee shop. London refuses to be boring.
Student tip: Strong opener when friends visit. Morbid, yes. Memorable, also yes.

• MBBS Malta: Same Degree, Bluer Sky

Barts and The London runs the full medical program on Gozo. Identical curriculum, fewer winter blues, stronger espresso.
Student tip: Check placement timelines early. Flights are less fun during exams.

• Beijing Double Degree: Big Alumni Web

QMUL and BUPT have run dual degrees since 2004. Thousands of engineers later, the network is no joke.
Student tip: Ask careers for alumni intros if Asia Tech is on your bingo card.

• Early Aeronautics: Wind Tunnels Before It Was Cool

Aeronautical engineering at Queen Mary goes back to 1907. In fact, QMUL hosted the UK’s first university aeronautical engineering department in 1909. The origin story is nerdy and proud.
Student tip: On tours, ask about historic equipment. Guides love that question.

• Whitechapel Life Sciences Expansion: Coming Soon

A major new biomedical site is planned near Whitechapel. Think labs, startups and people who say “translational” in casual chat.
Student tip: Subscribe to department emails. 

Got a better hidden gem? Send it. Bonus points for cool photos on different morbid spots for the 31st of October.