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The Department of Science was created in 1888 when the Department of General Literature and Science was split into two separate departments.

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).

King's College London Department of Theology was established in 1846 for the preparation of graduates and other candidates for Holy Orders. The Transfer Act of 1908 separated the secular and theological components of King's, creating institutions known respectively as The University of London, King's College, and the Theological Department of King's College London. The College Council retained all its powers in relation to the Faculty of Theology, but a Theological Committee was instituted to advise the Council and to superintend, under its direction, the work carried on in the Theological Department of the College. The Theological Department was thereafter a School of the University within the Faculty of Theology and the Head of the Theological Department was the Dean of King's College. Undergraduate courses available included the BD, intended as a first stage for teaching in schools or as a preparation for ordination, and the AKC, which overlapped with the BD but contained a more practical element for those meaning to enter ordained ministry. Postgraduate courses included the MTh, MPhil and PhD. In 1958 the University decided to make money available for more teaching posts in Theology, which were established within the Faculty of Arts, King's College. This led to the development of more non-vocational theological classes including courses in Religious Studies. Theology was formally reunited with the rest of the College in 1980 under the title King's College London. It is currently known as the Department of Theology and Religious Studies, part of the School of Humanities since 1989. Related research institutes include the Centre for New Religions, established in 1982, and the Centre for Advanced Biblical Studies.

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 Biomedical Sciences Division formed part of the Faculty of Life Sciences, which later became the School of Life, Basic Medical and Health Sciences. It is now known as 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 Medical and Dental Schools).

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 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.

The Department for the Training of Teachers was established under John William Adamson in 1890. In 1896 it was split into two sections: the Day Training College for those intending to teach in elementary schools, and the Department for Secondary Training. These were amalgamated in 1922 to form the Education Department, part of the Faculty of Arts.

In 1922, the Day Training College and the Department for Secondary Training were amalgamated to form the Education Department, part of the Faculty of Arts. This became the Faculty of Education in 1968.

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.

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 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.