Description: This view was taken looking north to Trent building, showing the bust of Jesse Boot (Lord Trent) at the south pedestrian entrance. Jesse Boot gave £50,000 to start an endowment fund to provide a university in Nottingham. In 1919 he had purchased the Highfields estate in Lenton, with intention of building a model village (like Bournville). This idea was abandoned after the sale of Boots in 1920, and in 1921 Jesse decided to use the land to rehouse University College, Nottingham, which was to become the new University. 35 acres of the Highfields estate were used and the remainder was landscaped into a public park with an ornamental lake. Jesse Boot contributed to the development of the site; £200,000 was spent on the building of University Boulevard. His total contribution to the University amounted to around £450,000. Florence Boot paid for a Hall of Residence on the university campus which now bears her name. The new University College buildings were opened 28th July 1928 (The old location was the Victorian high gothic University College building on Shakespeare Street.) The new buildings were officially opened by King George V and Queen Mary. In the New Years Honours of 1929, Boot was elevated to the peerage as the first Baron Trent of Nottingham. In August 1948, the University College received the royal charter granting full University status and the power to confer its own degrees. Prior to this date students at Nottingham received degrees from the University of London. (Parts of the old University College buildings were then used as Nottingham Central Library before becoming what is today part of Nottingham Trent University.) (partly extracted from www.boots-plc.com)