Goldsmiths, University of London

Goldsmiths, University of London is the art college where Ollie Treadaway is introduced as a celebrated student and where Edwina remembers first seeing him in 1957. The institution’s role in the story is concentrated in that memory: its canteen is the setting for the encounter that begins Edwina’s love for Ollie.

Identity and Portrayal

Ollie is described as Goldsmiths’ golden boy: a wiry nineteen-year-old with a fashionably curly forelock, still hovering on the brink of manhood. He has come from Ireland, and his student identity is part of the attraction and youthful promise that Edwina recalls decades later.

The Canteen Encounter

Edwina places their first meeting in the college canteen in 1957. She remembers her grey polo-neck jersey and black-and-white houndstooth pedal pushers, while Ollie wears a navy Guernsey knitted by his mother. As they wait in the queue for egg and chips, he pulls the hot jumper over his head; Edwina recalls falling in love at the sight of his pale skin. The ordinary setting and small, physical gesture make the encounter vivid in her retrospective account.

Narrative Significance

Goldsmiths, University of London is presented through Edwina’s memory rather than through institutional history or description. Nearly sixty years after the meeting, she frames Ollie’s arrival from Ireland as an extraordinary catch, comparing him to a leaping salmon. The college therefore anchors the remembered beginning of her relationship with him, while the distance between the youthful scene and her later reflection lends the memory its tenderness and sense of elapsed time.