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Anatomy classes were first taught in the Medical Department of King's from 1831. This department became the Faculty of Medicine in 1892, and from 1905 was known as the Medical Division, which formed part of the Faculty of Science. The Faculty of Medical Science was created in 1921 and two years later the Department of Anatomy was formed within it. Anatomy and Anthropology were also taught under the Faculty of Natural Science. After the merger of King's College School of Medicine and Dentistry with King's College Medical School in 1983 the Faculty of Medical Science became known as the Faculty of Basic Medical Sciences. From 1985 the Anatomy Department was called Anatomy and Human Biology, and in 1989 it became part of the Biomedical Sciences Division under the School of Life, Basic Medical and Health Sciences. The department was known as the Division of Anatomy, Cell and Human Biology, and is part of the GKT (Guy's, King's and St Thomas') School of Biomedical Sciences formed in 1998 from the Biomedical Sciences and the Basic Medical Sciences Divisions at UMDS (United Dental and Medical Schools).

Biochemistry formed part of the Department of Physiology, Biochemistry, Organic Chemistry and Histology in the Faculty of Medicine from 1925. This changed its name to the Department of Physiology, Biochemistry and Pharmacology in 1937. Biochemistry became a discreet department in 1958 and was incorporated into the Faculty of Basic Medical Sciences in King's College School of Medicine and Dentistry in 1983, the Faculty of Science in 1985, the Faculty of Life Sciences, 1986, the School of Life, Basic Medical and Health Sciences in 1989, the School of Medicine in 1998 and the Faculty of Life Sciences & Medicine, in 2014

A School of Biological Sciences was formed at King's in 1964 in order to coordinate the efforts of biology-related departments in both the Faculties of Medicine and Natural Science, namely Biochemistry, Biophysics, Botany, Physiology, and Zoology and Animal Biology. The first Professor of Biology was Emmeline Jean Hanson, appointed in 1966, but a unified Department of Biology only emerged following the tripartite merger of King's, Queen Elizabeth and Chelsea Colleges in 1985. The department was part of the Faculty of Life Sciences, and from 1991, successively part of the Biosphere and Life Sciences Divisions of the School of Life, Basic Medical and Health Sciences. Following the reorganisation of 1998, aspects of the teaching of biology were divided between the School of Health and Life Sciences and the School of Biomedical Sciences.

The Department of Biophysics began as the Medical Research Council (MRC) funded Biophysics Research Unit, 1946, attached to the Department of Physics, with John Turton Randall as first Director. It moved into the purpose-built Wheatstone Physics Laboratory in the basement of the main King’s Building, 1952. Staff of the Unit published preliminary findings on the structure of DNA in the April 1953 edition of Nature, simultaneously with James Watson and Francis Crick, Cavendish Laboratory, Cambridge. After years of further research, Maurice Wilkins was jointly awarded, with Watson and Crick, the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, 1962. The Unit became the Department of Biophysics in 1962 and moved to new premises in Drury Lane in 1964, with research groups working on cilia and flagella, muscle structure, nucleic acid structure, nuclear and chromosome structure, and x-ray diffraction studies of DNA and RNA. Randall retired in 1970, and was succeeded by Maurice Wilkins, 1970-1981. In 1985 the Department was combined with Cell and Molecular Biology in the Faculty of Life Sciences and in 1989 was renamed the Randall Institute. The Institute was relocated in 2001 to New Hunt’s House, Guy’s Campus, as the Randall Division of Cell and Molecular Biophysics, within the School of Biomedical Sciences.

Botany has been taught at King's from 1831 and was part of the Department of General Literature and Science, and also the Evening Class Department from 1861. Lessons in Botany and Practical Biology became available for Medical Department students during the 1880s. Botany and Vegetable/Plant Biology was principally part of the Natural Science Division of the Faculty of Science from 1893, though instruction also continued for students of the Medical Division. It was incorporated into the School of Biological Studies, formed in 1964, that also comprised the departments of Biochemistry, Biophysics, Physiology, and Zoology and Animal Biology. This prevailed until the merger in 1985, when Botany/Plant Sciences was absorbed within an enlarged Department of Biology, itself part of the Faculty of Life Sciences, and, from 1989, successively part of the Biosphere and Life Sciences Divisions of the School of Life, Basic Medical and Health Sciences. Since 1998 it has been part of the Division of Life Sciences in the School of Health and Life Sciences.

The Modern Greek Department was established in 1919, when the Koraes Chair was inaugurated following a subscription campaign and a grant from the Greek Government, and named in honour of Adamantios Koraes (1748-1833), the scholar and advocate of Greek national independence. The Department became known as the Department of Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies in 1971, and since 1989 has been part of the School of Humanities.

Chemistry was first taught by Professor John Frederick Daniell in the Senior Department and the Medical Department of King's from the opening of the College in 1831. The first Chemical Laboratory was founded a few years later in 1834. Daniell remained at King's until 1845 and in 1846 the Daniell Scholarship was founded in his honour. The subject has always encompassed many departments. When the Senior Department was split into two separate sections; Civil Engineering and Mining in 1838 and General Literature and Science in 1840, Chemistry was taught under both. These sections became the Department of General Literature and Science and the Department of Engineering and Applied Sciences, 1847-1848. Chemistry was also taught in Evening Classes, which were begun in 1848. In 1888 the Department of Science was formed from General Literature and Science. This became the Faculty of Science in 1893. That same year the Division of Engineering and Applied Sciences was created as part of the Faculty of Science. A separate Faculty of Engineering was later formed in 1902-1903. In 1905 the Faculty of Science was split into the Natural Science and Medical Science Divisions with Chemistry taught under both divisions. These divisions became the Faculties of Medical Science and Natural Science in 1921 and 1923 respectively. From 1961 the Chemistry Department came solely under the Faculty of Natural Science, although the subject continued to make up components of other courses. In 1985 after the merger of King's with Queen Elizabeth and Chelsea Colleges, the department became part of the Faculty of Mathematical and Physical Sciences, currently the School of Physical Sciences and Engineering.

The Department was established in 1980, following the reunification of the theological and secular parts of King's College and the consequent reorganisation of the teaching of theology at King's. It was absorbed back into the Department of Theology and Religious Studies when Theology became part of the School of Humanities in 1989.

Classes in the Greek and Latin Classics were provided from 1831 as part of the core curriculum of the Senior Department. Classics soon after became part of the new Department of General Literature and Science, the Faculty of Arts in 1893, and the School of Humanities in 1989. Its staff also contribute to the teaching and work of the Centre for Hellenic Studies, established in 1989.

Courses in English Literature and History were provided in the Senior Department at King's College from 1831 and shortly afterwards became part of the Department of General Literature and Science. English and History were separated in 1855, when classes in English Language and Literature became available. A Department of English was formed in 1922/23, remaining part of the Faculty of Arts until the School of Humanities was created in 1989.

Evening classes in subjects as diverse as English, History, Divinity, Drawing, French, Mathematics and Chemistry commenced at King's College in 1848. Teaching remained the responsibility of the separate faculties to which classes were appended administratively, until around 1907 when a distinct department emerged covering all evening class education at King's College. The department was discontinued upon the outbreak of war in 1939, although some few classes were transferred to Birkbeck College.

Instruction in French Literature and Language commenced with other teaching in the Senior Department at King's in 1831. It became part of the Department of General Literature and Science and later a full department within the Faculty of Arts in 1893 and School of Humanities in 1989. The department was merged with German, Spanish and Portuguese to become the Department of Languages, Literatures and Cultures within the Faculty of Arts & Humanities in 2014. Courses encompass French language, history, literature, philosophy and most notably, romance philology from 1902 .The department also contributes to the interdisciplinary European Studies BA.

Physical geography, imperial geography, and history and geography, were subjects taught in the Department of General Literature and Science and the Evening Studies Department at King's from the 1850s. A chair in geography was established in 1863. The department became part of the Faculty of Arts in 1893, and the subject taught under an intercollegiate arrangement with the London School of Economics from 1922, becoming known as the Joint School of Geography from 1949. The department was part of the School of Humanities from 1989 and in 2001 merged with the Geography Department of the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) and became part of the new School of Social Science and Public Policy.

The first Professor of Mineralogy and Geology at King's College London was Charles Lyell, who resigned in 1833 in response to criticism that his lectures undermined accepted biblical chronology. The subject was taught under the various titles of Geology and Mining, Geology, Palaeontology and Mining, and Geology and Geography, with Mineralogy, in the Departments of Applied Sciences, Evening Classes and the Faculty of Science, Natural Science Division, from 1893. The Department of Geology was part of the Faculty of Natural Science from its inception in 1921 until the merger of King's, Queen Elizabeth and Chelsea Colleges in 1985, when the teaching of geology was discontinued and transferred to Royal Holloway College.

Courses in German language and literature were provided by the Department of General Literature and Science from 1831, and were later also made available to students in the Evening Classes Department. A discrete Department was formed in the late 19th century with the creation of the Faculty of Arts in 1893, and was incorporated into the School of Humanities in 1989. The department was merged with French, Spanish and Portuguese to become the Department of Languages, Literatures and Cultures within the Faculty of Arts & Humanities in 2014.

Courses in English Literature and Modern History were provided in the Senior Department from 1831 and in the Department of General Literature and Science shortly afterwards. English and History were separated in 1855. The installation of Samuel Rawson Gardiner as first Professor in 1876 marked the beginning of a focus in the department on the political and constitutional history of Tudor and Stuart England. The department underwent considerable enlargement in staff and in the breadth of its teaching from around 1912 under Professor Fossey John Cobb Hearnshaw, especially with the establishment of the Rhodes Chair of Imperial History in 1919. The department became part of the Faculty of Arts in 1893 and the School of Humanities in 1989.

The University of London ran courses in journalism from around 1923. Study comprised a two-year diploma programme initially available at four participating institutions: University College, Bedford College, the London School of Economics and King's College, and comprising classes in practical journalism, composition, modern history and English Literature. Teaching was concentrated at King's College from 1935 under the directorship of Tom Clarke, former editor of the News chronicle , and teachers included Hugh Todd Naylor Gaitskell, lecturer in Political Economy at University College and the future Chancellor of the Exchequer. The course was suspended on the outbreak of war in September 1939 and never reinstated.

Mathematics has been taught at King's since it first opened in 1831. It initially was part of the Senior Department and the Department of General Literature and Science and then became part of the Faculty of Arts and the Faculty of Science from 1893, the Faculty of Mathematical and Physical Sciences from 1986, the School of Mathematical and Physical Sciences from 1991, and the School of Physical Sciences and Engineering from 1992.

Vocal music was a subject taught in the Department of General Literature and Science between 1843 and 1915. Music was an externally examined subject within the University of London from around 1900 until the University of London King Edward Chair was converted into a full-time professorship based at King's College in a new Faculty of Music in 1964. The Faculty of Arts and Music was created in 1986 which became a part of the School of Humanities in 1989.

Instruction in physics began in 1831 in the form of lectures in natural and experimental philosophy delivered to students in the Senior Department, from 1839 the Department of General Literature and Science and later the Department of Applied Sciences. Natural and experimental divisions were separated in 1834 when Charles Wheatstone was appointed Professor of Experimental Philosophy, a post he occupied until his death in 1875. Classes in natural philosophy were available to Evening Class students and students of the Medical Faculty and Faculty of Engineering, but the Physics Department properly became part of the Faculty of Science in 1893. In 1923 Physics became part of the Faculty of Natural Science, which later formed part of the Faculty of Mathematical and Physical Sciences. This became the School of Physical Sciences and Engineering in 1991. Charles Wheatstone, responsible for pioneering experiments in the fields of electric telegraphy, batteries, harmonics and optics, upon his death bequeathed an extensive collection of scientific instruments and equipment to the College to form the Wheatstone Laboratory, one of the earliest physical laboratories in the country. Other notables include James Clerk Maxwell, pioneer in the study of electromagnetism, who was Professor of Natural Philosophy, 1860-1865; Charles Glover Barkla, Wheatstone Professor of Physics, 1909-1914, who whilst at the University of Edinburgh was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1917 for work on X-rays; Sir Owen Richardson, Wheatstone Professor of Physics, 1914-1922, awarded a Nobel Prize for Physics in 1928 for prior work on thermionics undertaken at the Cavendish Laboratory, Cambridge; Sir Edward Appleton, Wheatstone Professor of Physics, 1924-1936, who conducted experiments on the interaction of radio waves with the earth's atmosphere at the Strand and at the College's Halley Stewart Laboratories, Hampstead, for which he was subsequently awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1947, whilst employed by the British Government's Department of Scientific and Industrial Research; and Maurice Hugh Frederick Wilkins, Deputy Director of the Medical Research Council Biophysics Research Unit, later the Department of Biophysics, King's College London, 1955, whose work on the structure of the DNA molecule was rewarded with the Nobel Prize for Medicine in 1962.