St Mary's University College is a university college situated in Strawberry Hill, Twickenham in South West London. Founded in 1850, it is generally acknowledged to be the oldest Roman Catholic college in the UK. St Mary's assumed university college status in 2007 and has been granting its own academic degrees to new students joining since September 2007. The campus is often referred to as Strawberry Hill, and the university college is known colloquially as "Simmery's", "Simmies" or "Simms". Its alumni are known as "Simmarians" or "Simmies". Strawberry Hill was originally a small cottage in two or 3 acres (12,000 m) of land by the River Thames. Horace Walpole, a son of the politician Robert Walpole, rented the cottage in 1717 and subsequently bought it. He set about reconstructing the house and adding to the land, which now amounts to around 35 acres (140,000 m). Walpole did not follow the conventional eighteenth-century fashion of classical building, but sought his inspiration in medieval styles, creating a notable early example of neo-Gothic architecture.