The New Museums Site Historic Environment Analysis

HISTORIC ENVIRONMENTANALYSIS

NEW MUSEUMS SITECAMBRIDGE

May 2015

Beacon Planning Ltd

7 Quy Court,

Colliers Lane

Stow-cum-Quy

CAMBRIDGE

CB25 9AU

T 01223 810990

www.beaconplanning.co.uk

© Beacon Planning Ltd 2015

This document has been prepared in accordance with the scope of Beacon Planning Limited’s appointment with

its client and is subject to the terms of that appointment. It is addressed to and for the sole and confidential use

and reliance of Beacon Planning Limited’s client. Beacon Planning Limited accepts no liability for any use of this

document other than by its client and only for the purposes for which it was prepared and provided. No person other

than the client may copy (in whole or in part) use or rely on the contents of this document, without the prior written

permission of the Company Secretary of Beacon Planning Limited. Any advice, opinions, or recommendations

within this document should be read and relied upon only in the context of the document as a whole.

Prepared: J Mason

Checked: Dr J Burgess

Senior Consultant

Director

Project Ref: 15-1007

Date: 28 May 2015

New Museums Site: Historic Environment Analysis V. Issued 28 May 2015

CONTENTS

1. Introduction 1

2. Historical Development of the Site 3

3. Analysis of Buildings on the Site 15

4. Townscape / Spatial Analysis 61

5. References 71

Appendices

1. Braun Hogenberg map (1575)

William Smith (1588)

John Speed (1610)

Dewhurst and Nichols (1840)

Site Plan of New Museums Site with Denys Lasdun’s November 1962 proposals (from

‘Cambridge New Architecture’ (1970) Booth & Taylor)

Cambridge Townscape (1971)

2. Statutory Guidance

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1.0 INTRODUCTION

1.01 In December 2010, Beacon Planning were asked by Cambridge University to look at the buildings and spaces on the New Museums Site to give some initial thoughts on the significance of these various ‘heritage assets’ as the first steps in a strategy to improve the environment on the site and its linkages.

1.02 In 2013, a project team was put together to prepare a strategic plan for the development of the New Museums Site. As the Heritage Planning Consultants for this project, Beacon were appointed to provide advice to the team on conservation and heritage issues. Following the preparation of the masterplan in 2014, it was considered beneficial to produce a Supplementary Planning Document to guide the development of the New Museums Site.

1.03 This Historic Environment Analysis report provides the background information on the status and importance of the individual buildings and will help guide future development options. Although largely prepared in 2010/11, it has been revised between 2013 and 2015 to encompass factual corrections, to update the heritage status of buildings, and to provide additional information uncovered during further research. Appendix 2 provides the policy context to the report and references the guidance documents relevant to the consideration of heritage significance.

1.04 The New Museums Site was originally the location of the Franciscan Friary (fragments remain within the Arts School Cellar) but in the C18 the land was acquired as the first University Botanic Garden. By the mid C19, the site was becoming untenable and the Garden moved to its present site on Hills Road. The garden and adjacent land was consequently acquired to house the laboratories, lecture rooms and museums for the teaching of Natural Sciences which became part of the curriculum in 1848.

1.05 Development on the site has never followed a specific masterplan; the one attempt to do so in the 1960s was unsuccessful due to the height of the buildings proposed (the Arup Building (now the

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David Attenborough Building) was the only building to be granted consent). The opportunity to integrate the site into the life of central Cambridge by means of a podium-level link to Lion Yard was also missed. Instead building has taken place in a piecemeal manner as new discoveries lead to the development of new disciplines and where funding became available. The result is a hotchpotch of buildings, with little setting between them which have often been modified to suit new uses or changing regulations.

1.06 The development of the West Cambridge site in recent years has meant that many of the science-based departments, as part of a University estate strategy, have moved to the edge of the city. This provides the opportunity for less intensive activities on the New Museums Site with the resultant opportunities to improve its environment and possibly linkages with the city centre streets which surround it.

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2.0 HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT OFTHE SITE

2.01 The New Museum’s site is today bounded on the south by Pembroke Street, and Downing Street, (formerly Dowdiver Lane) and on the east by Corn Exchange Street (formerly Slaughter House Lane or Fair Yard Lane). The south end of the street was at times called Hog Hill, or the Hog Market, or the Beast Market, and by the C19, St. Andrew’s Hill. The north side of the site is defined by the buildings on the south side of Wheeler Street / Bene’t Street which include the Corn Exchange and Barclays (formerly Mortlock’s) Bank; and on the west by Free School Lane, formerly Luthburne Lane, which includes an estate originally belonging to Stephen Perse, M.D. and the site of the original Perse School.

2.02 The New Museums Site is within the medieval city of Cambridge. Parcels of land within the site were acquired by the Austin Friars from 1290 onwards until 1376, possibly retaining some of the existing private properties to earn rental income from them. Upon the dissolution of the monasteries (1538-39) the friary was surrendered to the Crown and the Prior at the time, John Hardyman, became caretaker of the friary site on behalf of King Henry VIII. Officials of the King sold the property in 1544 to George Keynsham who, a year later, reputedly sold slate from the friary for use on the steeple of Great St Mary’s Church which caused deterioration of the buildings and consequently the demolition of large sections of the friary. However, as the early maps of Cambridge show, significant parts of the Augustinian Friary site remained.

Richard Lyne (1574)

2.03 The site of the Augustinian Friars can clearly be seen as a quadrangular building facing the ‘Pease Market’ and with a continuous frontage to what is now Bene’t Street / Wheeler Street. A southern projection is shown and may have been a chapel or refectory. A separate free-standing building can be seen within the land to the south and the boundary to the King’s Ditch appears to be walled and with an impressive gateway. The land to the south of the King’s Ditch appears to be occupied by a separate substantial dwelling ‘Passcall Close’ set within heavily treed grounds.

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2.04 The buildings of the former friary were at this time occupied by John Hatcher, Professor Regius of physics at Cambridge who lived there until his death in 1587. The site is shown unenclosed to what is now Free School Lane, although Braun Hoegenberg’s map (a contemporary coloured map) shows a hedge along this boundary. Smith’s map of 1588 shows a similar arrangement to Lyne’s map, but more diagrammatically. The site is thus largely open, but tightly enclosed.

2.05 In the wider surroundings, Bennett College (now Corpus Christi) is shown on the other side of Free School Lane and Pembroke College is shown on the south side of Pembroke Street. Just to the north of the site, the market place was the economic and social core of the town with the Guildhall at the southern end of the market place.

Hammond’s Map (1592)

2.06 This continues to show the remains of the Friary buildings in the north and north-west of the site and with their land running as far south as the King’s Ditch. The buildings on the north-east corner of the site (i.e. at the junction with what is now Corn Exchange Street); on the north corner of what is now Free School Lane; along Free School Lane itself and on the south corner of the present Corn Exchange Street where it joined the King’s Ditch all appear to be in separate ownership. The triangle of land between the King’s Ditch and the present Pembroke Street can be seen more definitely than on Lyne’s Map.

2.07 John Hatcher’s heirs had by this time divided the former friary property and the frontages of what are now Free School Lane, Corn Exchange Street and Wheeler Street have been subdivided into separate plots. This encroachment into the friary lands is evidence of the growing problem of Cambridge’s overcrowding and shows how the New Museums Site was becoming part of the urban grain of the town. There was also considerable development of buildings at the south end of the market place – partly municipal, but many commercial buildings too. Speed’s map of 1610 (see Appendix 1) shows a similar arrangement.

David Loggan’s Plan (1688)

2.08 This shows the south, west and east sides of what is now the New Museum’s site becoming increasingly developed. Although elements of the Friary buildings may remain, they

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have been subsumed within a range of buildings and courts fronting what is now Bene’t Street / Wheeler Street.

2.09 Free School Lane is also developed at its north-west end and with ‘The Free School’ shown at its south eastern end. This building, generally referred to as the Old Perse School, was founded under the terms of the will of Stephen Perse MD who died in 1615. The school was built by 1623-4 and the U-shaped form, open to the lane, can be clearly seen.

2.10 A row of alms-houses can be seen close to the school but fronting the current Pembroke Street. What is now Corn Exchange Street is very heavily developed along its western side with a range of relatively small and narrow plots.

2.11 Despite all this development, the heart of the site is still shown as garden land as is the triangle of land south of the King’s ditch. It is, however, well integrated into the fabric of the town which was straining under the pressure of the ever-increasing population which meant that housing had become more intensive with buildings often covering the land behind the street frontages. 2.12 Fairly substantial parts of the Friary, which was founded in 1290, therefore survived into the C18. The antiquarian William Cole (born in 1714) apparently remembered a gateway fronting Peas Hill which was like that to Trinity Hall with a main archway and smaller gate beside it. Other parts may have been used as a boarding school for girls run by Mrs Wigmore until the site was acquired (in part) by the ironmonger William Finch who demolished buildings including the Friary Gateway in 1720 to allow for the construction of his brick-built ‘capital mansion house, Coach House, Stables and Offices’.

Plan of Cambridge (1763)

2.13 The majority of what is now the New Museum’s site was bought on 16 July 1760, by Richard Walker, then Vice-Master of Trinity College, from Richard Whish a vintner, of Cambridge. He conveyed the land to the University in 1762 for the purposes of providing a Botanic Garden.

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2.14 The conveyance to Dr Walker divided the land into four parts:-

1) House and ground on the west side of Fair Yard Lane (now Corn Exchange Street) together with Tainter Yard. This is the triangle of land between the King’s Ditch and the current Pembroke Street clearly shown on Hammond’s map.

2) The former Friary Land described as being off Free School Lane and occupied by Thomas Buck. Mr Buck was the University printer and the house he occupied (until his death in 1746) was sketched in 1770 from a window in Corpus Christi College and reproduced by William Cole (the Cambridgeshire antiquarian). From the sketch it seems fairly clear that this had been part of the Friary and may have been the wing running south shown clearly on Hammond’s map which was said to be the old refectory. It was subse-quently occupied by John Salton, the Botanic Gardener until it became ruinous and was sold to John Mortlock (see below).

3) Buildings and gardens owned by Thomas Brewer (late of John Thornborough). This seems to have largely been the gardens running south of the above towards the King’s Ditch.

4) Various tenements in several ownerships off Free School Lane. These remained in the ownership of Mr Whish but were subsequently bought by the University from 1856 - 1875.

2.15 The 1763 plan of Cambridge shows the Botanic Garden, which had only the previous year been laid out, for the first time. This shows a long slightly bowed structure at the northern end with two smaller square structures between this and a pair of ponds in the centre of the garden.

William Custance Map (1798)

2.16 Custance’s map shows some minor changes to the garden’s layout, but shows the garden’s two entrances more clearly – one via a relatively narrow passage off Free School lane and a more formal one from Pembroke Street. Willis and Clark describe how the former was via a ‘small Renaissance Gateway’ and had the curator’s house at its south east end and the latter had handsome wrought iron gates (said to still exist when the books were published in 1886). The gravel

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path from these ran across the King’s Ditch and, by the end of 18th century, terminated at a central cigar-shaped pool (which appears to have been an amalgamation of the previous two ponds). The range of greenhouses shown against the north wall of the garden in Custance’s map are in a different arrangement from the 1763 plan. The garden south of the pool was planted with herbaceous plants in parallel beds; that to the north was less formally planted with less hardy plants.

2.17 It can be seen from Custance’s map of 1798 that surrounding buildings and private gardens off what are now Bene’t Street and Free School Lane (including the Perse School) remained at this time as did the alms-houses on Pembroke Street. These properties included the ‘mansion house’ of William Finch (who had died in 1761) which John Mortlock then bought as a residence (and subsequently bank). In 1783, Mortlock also bought some land containing the former friary refectory from the University, demolishing it and building a brick wall to separate his property from the Botanic Garden. Any remains of the friary building seem to have been demolished by the construction of stables for Mr Mortlock in 1783.

2.18 Following the sale of the former friary refectory which had provided accommodation for the Professor of Botany, the University were duty-bound to accommodate the Professor and the Jacksonian Professor elsewhere. Willis and Clark describe the rather tortuous attempts to provide a lecture room for the Professors which ultimately resulted in a simple brick structure with stone dressings erected in 1786. Built by local workmen, the Botanical and Chemical Lecture Room was erected in the southeast corner of the site.

Baker’s Map (1830)

2.19 Little has changed on the site and immediate vicinity, but wider afield the topography of Cambridge was changing rapidly with the enclosure act of 1807 and award of 1811 enabling development on the encircling common fields for the first time. On the site however, the Botanic Garden appears largely as shown on earlier maps but with the presumably greenhouse ranges to the north of the garden slightly extended and with a new building on the corner of the garden entrance off Free School Lane. The garden itself is clearly depicted though it is noticeable that the line of the King’s Ditch is now shown as being a far less significant feature.

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2.20 Shortly after Baker’s map was published, a scheme to provide accommodation for the Professors of Anatomy and Chemistry on the Botanic Garden site was approved in 1832. The scheme by Charles Humfrey was for extensions to the existing Botanical and Chemical Lecture Room (built 1786) and resulted in new rooms for the Professor of Chemistry at the north end of the old building and a Museum, lecture room and dissecting room for the Professor of Anatomy, completed in 1833. These buildings are shown on Dewhurst and Nichols Map of 1840 for the first time (see Appendix 1).

2.21 A Natural Sciences Tripos was established in the mid C19 (the first examination was held in 1851) and this together with the publication of the evidence of the scientific Professors by Her Majesty’s Commissioners in the previous year highlighted the need for better accommodation for this developing field of study. This coincided with the realization that the Botanic Garden was no longer fit for purpose and its removal to Hills Road followed between 1846 and 1852 when the site was sold to the University for the building of ‘new Museums and Lecture Rooms’. 2.22 An early plan had considered selling off the site for building plots and possibly a new market place but these were quickly dispelled and plans were laid to use the old garden site for new museums and lecture rooms and a detailed report setting out the requirements was dated 31 December 1853. On 8 February 1854, Anthony Salvin was authorized to prepare plans and costs for erecting building to meet the stated needs of the various departments and professors.

2.23 The plans were generally approved in the May of that year and envisaged a building along the north side of the old garden with a garden towards Free School Lane and access to the front. The building was effectively divided into three, broadly housing a lecture theatre (seating 400) for literature in the centre, lecture rooms, laboratory and offices for chemistry to the east and a Botanical Museum and lecture theatre to the west. A Mineralogy lecture room and museum were housed on the upper floor.

J W Lowry’s Map (1863)

2.24 The continued indecision over the provision of new buildings on the old Botanic Garden site means that the only buildings visible on the site are the Anatomical, Chemical and Botanical

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Rooms on the corner of the current Corn Exchange and Downing Streets and the Perse School and Alms-houses. Along Corn Exchange Street, Wheeler Street / Bene’t Street and Free School Lane the frontages remain largely built up and outside the University’s ownership. The line of the King’s Ditch is no longer marked.

2.25 Finally in June 1863, after further internal wrangling, work began on Salvin’s buildings. The west wing was completed in November 1864, the east wing (the Museum of Zoology) in February 1865 and the Museum of Comparative Anatomy in June 1865.

2.26 Thoughts then turned to the need for buildings for the study of Physical Science and Experimental Physics. Following a donation by the Duke of Devonshire (the Chancellor of the University) the site at the entrance to the Old Botanic Garden off Free School lane was chosen and a new building together with a Porter’s Lodge was designed by W M Fawcett. This became known as the Cavendish laboratory and was completed in 1873.

2.27 In 1876 a building attached to the Zoology and Comparative Anatomy Building off Corn Exchange Street was commenced and a three storey building, again to the designs of Fawcett was commenced. This building was intended to have concrete floors but following a collapse, this was substituted for the more traditional wood.

2.28 In 1878, a workshop building for the teaching of Mechanics (or engineering) was erected at the back of the Botanical Museum. In 1880 this was extended and a drawing office provided to the south of the Cavendish Laboratory. This was extended again in 1882 and 1884 when a foundry was added whilst an adjoining house was used as a temporary museum and store.

2.29 The central block of buildings was altered in 1880 when the ‘Museums of Physical Apparatus’ were combined to form a library and examination hall. A third floor was added to the central building in 1882 and similarly above the west wing in 1884.

1888 Ordnance Survey (from survey in 1886)

2.30 This plan shows in some detail the first buildings on the New Museums Site as we know it today. Beginning at the northwest corner of the site, the Cavendish Laboratory can be clearly

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seen. This had been built on the site of Nos. 6, 7, 8, 9, 11 and 13 Free School Lane. To the south west of this is the Museum of Botany and Mineralogy with a botanical lecture room at its south end. Attached to the west side of the latter is a building marked ‘Applied Mechanics’ with a similar notation for a block of buildings south of the Cavendish Porter’s Lodge on Free School Lane.

2.31 To the east of the Botanical Lecture Room was the Philosophical Library – a long, thin building running east – west to join a lecture room for Comparative Anatomy which had its museum in a large wing to the north with a slim Physiology classroom along its east side. Continuing the spine of east-west buildings across the site was a block containing offices, workshops and laboratory.

2.32 At the east end, this spine of building attached to the laboratory and store rooms at the north end of the building facing Corn Exchange Street. This had chemistry laboratories and lecture rooms together with a further lecture room and dissecting room for Anatomy and an octagonal museum for Human Anatomy on the corner of Corn Exchange and Downing Streets.

2.33 In the south-west corner of the site is a major block of buildings including a large chemistry laboratory running north from Pembroke Street with lecture rooms attached facing the street. Close to the Free School Lane corner is an arched entrance to the site with a Porter’s Lodge attached.

2.34 To the north of this block, but facing Free School Lane can be seen the Perse School Buildings which present three gables to the street and retain an area of garden to the north.

2.35 Despite the erection of a number of buildings, a good deal of the former Botanic Garden site remained undeveloped and it appears that the original entrance gates off Pembroke Street survived as did some of the trees and greenhouses against the northern boundary wall.

2.36 Surrounding the site, the new Corn Exchange had been built in 1875 on the corner of Wheeler Street. Mortlock’s Bank enjoyed a prominent position facing Peas Hill and had extensive gardens (and a tennis court) to the rear marked as the site of the ‘Austin Friary’. The rest of the buildings in the block formed by Wheeler Street, Bene’t Street and the northern part of Free School Lane are clearly residential and commercial buildings including the Globe PH to the west of Mortlock’s Bank.

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2.37 On the south side of Downing Street, the University’s Downing Site was formed following the purchase, in 1896/7, of the northern portion of the Downing College site. Downing College was founded on the large area of open land south of Downing Street (the marshy leys site) and development had begun in 1821 but had never reached the northern portion of the site.

1903 Ordnance Survey

2.38 The 1903 Ordnance Survey Plan shows the new Zoology Building designed by E S Prior at the corner of Downing and Corn Exchange Streets, though this was not actually completed until 1904. The previous buildings on this corner of the site were the amalgamated 1784 and 1832-33 buildings which were pulled down in 1900. Salvin’s Corn Exchange Street buildings remained and were extended to the north with new buildings for Human Anatomy including a shared lecture room for Anatomy and Physiology designed by W M Fawcett in 1890-91. A covered entrance to the site is evident between the new and original buildings.

2.39 Off Free School Lane, the southern extension of the Cavendish Laboratory can be seen and the former Perse School has by this time been remodelled in 1893 to form a new engineering laboratory (the Whipple Museum) which was extended in 1900 by a new wing, the Hopkinson Laboratory. Internally, the site appears to be largely as in 1888 still with the former Botanic Garden entrance off Pembroke Street and a reasonable feel of spaciousness between the frontage buildings on Pembroke Street and the central spine and between the north wings of the latter. The frontages of the site are now, however, almost entirely enclosed by a wall of University buildings with relatively limited access points.


2.40 By the end of the first decade of the C20, the site had expanded northwards to Bene’t Street and the site’s boundaries were now as today. The expansion of the site to the north facilitated the construction of the Rayleigh Wing to the Cavendish Laboratory in 1908, the Examinations School in 1909 and the Arts School in 1910 with property along Bene’t Street demolished to gain access to the latter two buildings.

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2.41 By the late 1920s, considerable consolidation of the site had taken place and the feeling of spaciousness was rapidly disappearing. The 1931 Bowes and Bowes Plan shows the uses of the buildings at around this time. The buildings to Pembroke Street now formed a continuous frontage with an archway through. The new infill building built in 1908 as an extension to the Chemical Laboratory was as deep as the rear wing of the first chemistry laboratory and between these buildings is the Goldsmiths’ Laboratory, opened in 1920. In the former courtyard behind the frontage is a pair of parallel blocks (Public Health and Engineering) with other smaller structures, whilst considerable expansion had occurred to the west of the original Botany Museum leaving little space between it and the Cavendish Laboratories. A new building has also appeared between the northern wings of the spine buildings, whilst the wing of Salvin’s building facing Corn Exchange Street has been demolished.

2.42 Further alterations took place on the site between the wars and immediately afterwards. The Mond Laboratory was built in 1932 and though largely on the footprint of an earlier building is recognisable by its ‘radius end’ on its north-west corner. This was designed by H C Hughes who also built the adjacent workshop building to the north. This now forms the west leg of the Austin Wing which was built in 1939-40 to the designs of Adams Holden and Pearson again roughly on the footprint of earlier buildings.

243 Also in the 1930s, Murray Easton remodelled the Zoology Building in 1934. The most obvious work from the street was the new wing along Corn Exchange Street though Prior’s original building was actually extensively remodelled too on all but the Downing Street façade and the corner to Corn Exchange Street.


2.44 The 1930s buildings described above can all be seen on the 1967 Ordnance Survey. Most noticeable is the unified rear elevation of the Zoology Building with its embanked perimeter. Evidence of the remodelling of the rear of the Pembroke Street buildings (e.g. those west of the archway) can also be seen. The Shell Building, added to the rear of the range immediately west of the arch, was built in 1958-9 by Murray Easton. Similarly, the Cockcroft Building is recognisable as is the MRC Hut to the north of this. A curiously shaped building can also be seen attached to

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the south west corner of the Examination Schools adjacent to the still extant laboratory buildings on Corn Exchange Street. Whilst on the other side of the site, a small extension to the rear of the former Perse School, by now used for Physical Chemistry, was apparently designed by Basil Ward in 1952.

2.45 At the time of the publication of the 1967 Ordnance Survey, the debate over the form of the remodelled New Museums Site was at its height. The initial plan by Denys Lasdun, published in May 1961, advocated two 15-storey and one 10-storey tower and met with considerable opposition. Revised proposals were put forward in November 1962 (see Appendix 1) incorporating the newly constructed Cockcroft Building.

2.46 Consent was not granted for a substantially revised scheme until 1966 and work on Phase I of the masterplan which was the building for Mathematics, Metallurgy and Zoology was not completed until 1971. The clearly expressed gridded structure of the new building is a key feature of Arup Associates work at the time and the building is effectively arranged around three internal courtyards with satellite towers to the east and west containing stairs and offices.

2.47 The 1967 OS shows the building work for the Arup Building as it came to be known has only just commenced with the only evidence so far being the demolition of almost all of the remaining Salvin buildings in the centre of the site (the central archway of these building is still shown on the map). The laboratories on Corn Exchange were also demolished to make way for the new building.

2.48 The 1967 OS also shows the major change taking place in the city with the construction of the Lion Yard shopping centre and car park wiping away the historic grain of the city along the east side of Corn Exchange Street. To the north of the site, the 1930s Guildhall replaced the 19th century building, although the library and other elements were retained in an amalgamated building. To the south of the site, further buildings are evident on the Downing Site and within Pembroke College.

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Post-1967

2.48 Since the construction of the Arup Building (shown partly on the 1978 OS above and as just built in the 1971 Cambridge Townscape extract in Appendix 1) – the only part of the Site masterplan actually built – subsequent changes to the Site have been relatively minor. Most alterations to buildings have been as the result of requirements for fume extraction or air conditioning or actions to prevent the spread of fire, particularly in buildings housing laboraties, eg the Austin Wing, Shell Building and Old Metallurgy.

2.49 More substantial was the move of the Department of Physics from the site to the West Cambridge site, with the move completed by 1974. The name of the laboratory was transferred to the new building – it was at this point that the Free School Lane buildings became the Old Cavendish Laboratory. Physics has been followed in 2013 by the Department of Materials Science and Metallurgy alongside the University Computing Service. The Department of Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology is to follow in 2015.

2.50 In the wider context of the site, the importance of Cambridge as a shopping centre has increased in recent years with the construction of the Grand Arcade, effectively extending the Lion Yard centre. This has continued the southern gravitation of Cambridge, pulling the traditional centre of Cambridge away from the market place. The traditional municipal southern side of the market place is now rapidly becoming a cultural/restaurant quarter with the Mortlock’s former bank on the northern edge of the New Museums Site also converted into restaurant use.

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3.0 THE BUILDINGS ON THE SITE This section seeks to provide a preliminary analysis of the heritage interests of the buildings on the New Museums Site. Key issues taken into account are the value of the original building, the extent of later alterations or extensions and the setting. Their contribution to the townscape quality of the site is also considered.

Clearly the New Museums Site has seen a number of hugely important breakthroughs in the fields of science and technology and where these are known, they are noted in the descriptions of the buildings that follow. However, it is acknowledged that a large number of Nobel Prizes and other significant discoveries are linked to the site, but not all associations with individual buildings may be adequately reflected within the following descriptions.

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1. Zoology Building2. 4 Parsons Court3. MRC Hut4. Rayleigh Wing5. East Wing6. Old Cavendish7. Social Anthropology Wing8. Phoenix Building

9. Old Physical Chemistry10. Examinations Schools11. Arts School12. David Attenborough Building13. 1907/Shell Building14. Goldsmiths Laboratory15. Old Metallurgy16. Heycock Wing

17. Austin Wing18. Cockcroft Building19. Balfour Building20. Mond Building21. Mond Building Annex

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1. Zoology Building

Status

Grade II Listed Building

Description

Original building of 1900-1904 by E S Prior – built as the Humphry Museum and buildings for the Medical School. Building remodelled, altered at the upper levels and extended to north by Murray Easton in 1934 to form Zoological Laboratories.

1900-1904 building in Free Classical style of three storeys in ashlar stone plus rusticated semi basement and attic storey. The end-piece to Corn Exchange Street has a canted corner with multi-light transom and mullion windows, rusticated stonework and richly decorated pediment supported on Tuscan columns with exaggerated architrave, frieze and cornice. The roof is topped by a lead-covered lantern.

The main street frontage is of 30 bays and has open pediments (a triangular one flanked by segmental ones) which project forward. The building has inscriptions by Eric Gill.

The 1930s north wing and remodelled elements are flat-roofed and of yellow / brown brick with regularly-placed modern windows in original openings between continuous sill and head bands. The Corn Exchange Street north wing is higher than the remodelled Downing Street range.

Interior

The end library on the corner of Corn Exchange Street and the unusual staircase are particularly fine features. There is some original detailing to the frontage spaces, but the rear was rebuilt in the 1930s and is plainer.

Setting

Part of a continuous range of University/College buildings along Downing/Pembroke Street, all statutorily or locally listed. Adjoining across the gateway entrance to the west is the 1907 extension to the Chemical Laboratories (all BLIs) whilst opposite is the grade II* listed Pembroke College and the grade II listed Sedgwick Museum. Behind Zoology is the David Attenborough Building (into which the rear wing of Zoology links) and to the east across Corn Exchange Street is the Cambridge City Hotel.

1934

R

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Sch

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D

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M

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no.1

0058

)

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17


Libr

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The area between the Zoology Department and the Zoology Museum in the David Attenborough Building will be landscaped and encompass a foyer extension for the Museum, significantly enhancing the setting of the Zoology Building.

Historical importance

The Humphry Museum and buildings for the Medical Schools (as the original building was built) was opened by King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra in 1904. The State Medicine Syndicate contributed £2000 and £350 was contributed by Lady Humphry and others for the fittings of the Museum.

It was intended that the building, when completed, would be in the shape of an irregular L. However, only the Downing Street wing was completed to the original plan as the other wing which was later completed by Murray Easton facing Corn Exchange Street, was not built originally as it was intended to contain the Department of Pathology which instead moved to a new laboratory on the Downing Site in the 1930s.

Townscape importance

The original building is a very prominent building within Downing Street’s townscape. The westernmost pediment of the main street frontage encloses the vista along Tennis Court Road and the canted corner to Corn Exchange Street is an important feature in the streetscene.

Summary of significance

The original building is an important work of E S Prior and as a Grade II listed building is considered to be of high significance generally, although the later additions and alterations not of the same quality. The 1930s alterations and extensions are, however, of some architectural interest as a work of a good architect (Murray Easton) working in the ‘Modern Movement’ style and are considered to be significant.

18


Potential works through masterplan

The refurbishment and extension of the David Attenborough Building behind the Zoology Building together with the associated landscaping will enhance the setting of the Grade II listed Zoology Building and strengthen links between the Museum and Department. Further improvements to the setting could be achieved through the additional opening up of the New Museums Site by the removal of other buildings and by streetscape improvements on Pembroke Street and Corn Exchange Street.

2. No.4 Parsons Court

Status

None (Grade II list description for No.4 Parson’s Court clearly relates to No.3 Parson’s Court, and thus is considered to be an error).

Description

Former Coach House of 3 storeys. Gault brick walls with red brick and terracotta detailing and hipped slate roof. Small single storey range with doorway in east wall adjoining main range to north. Three off-centre slightly corbelled end stacks on north, east and west elevations. Tiled and terracotta panels under overhanging eaves set between windows and protruding chimneystacks.

Single 4-panelled door on north side of east elevation with plain rectangular fanlight above. Single sliding sash windows on each floor in adjoining bay of east elevation. Windows on all other elevations also sliding sashes, generally 2/2 and those on the first floor the largest. Large loading doors with ‘Charles Collinge Patent London’ strap hinges on ground floor of south elevation. Stone top with circular flower relief on SE protruding corner of building – formerly a gate/door post with matching brick pier and stone top to south.

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19


Interior

Ground floor stores. Upper floors largely plain, although some fireplaces survive along with picture rails on first floor, and staircase to upper floor is probably late C19.

Setting

Positioned at the south end of Parson’s Court, the building is tightly enclosed on all sides – the Examinations Schools to the south, the Grade II listed Corn Exchange to the east, the Grade II listed No.3 Parson’s Court to the north and the rearmost range of No.10 Peas Hill (Grade II listed to the west). It appears (architecturally) to relate to the Corn Exchange, and historically, is related more to the town than to the University.

Historical Importance

The property was in use as a coach house for Mortlock’s premises (house and bank) on Bene’t Street prior to its purchase by the University in the early years of the C20. Its detailing, however, suggests that it may have had some association with the Corn Exchange which lies immediately adjacent to the east. (The site of the building was certainly in the ownership of the Cambridge Corporation at some point in the mid-late C19.)

It was leased to the University in 1897 and shortly afterwards, probably passed into the University’s ownership permanently when the garden land of Mortlock’s bank/house and surrounding properties were purchased as part of the last phase of the NMS’s expansion in c1901. The property has accommodated several University Departments including Education and the Cambridge Society throughout the C20.

Townscape Importance

Tucked away at the south end of the narrow Parson’s Court which is little more than a delivery yard for the Corn Exchange, the building is little seen and views are limited to oblique ones from Wheeler Street and from close range. It is therefore a rather unappreciated with little townscape presence.

Sta

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No.

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20


Its context, surrounded by bins and storage areas is not enticing, although it does complement the Corn Exchange in architectural detailing, but this relationship goes largely unnoticed.


The building has historical associations with Mortlock’s bank and possibly the Corn Exchange, but has a limited townscape presence, although it has good architectural detailing. Although technically Grade II listed, this is thought to be a street-numbering error in the list description for No.3 Parson’s Court. It is nonetheless noteworthy for its architectural and historic interest in the conservation area and it is therefore considered generally to be of high significance (to reflect its slightly ambiguous heritage designation status).


Potential enhancements to the building’s setting are limited to public realm improvements to the informal route through to the New Museums Site from Parson’s Court as part of the improvements to permeability needed to increase legibility of the New Museums Site.

3. MRC Hut

Status

None

Description

C20 single storey metal-framed building of brick and render, and with pitched sheet metal roof. Originally a Ministry of Works Type 24 Hut of 13 bays. It had a corrugated asbestos sheet roof with walls of brick outer leaf and Phorpres Block inner leaf. Laboratory and lavatory floor finishes were granolithic with wood blocks used for the research rooms and circulation areas. It was refurbished in 1994 to form Rolls Royce University Technology Centre – now used by site security.

MR

C H

ut

21


1947

app

rove

d pl

ans

for M

RC

Hut

(CR

O B

uild

ing

Pla

n no

. 153

84)

Setting

Sits within a tarmac ‘courtyard’ used for car-parking and enclosed by the Examinations Schools to the north, the David Attenborough Building to the east, the Cockcroft Building to the south and the Austin Wing to the west from which the MRC Hut is separated by bike sheds.


Built 1948 for the Department of Metallurgy which relinquished it in 1957 when it was then occupied by the molecular biologists from the Cavendish, forming the nucleus of what was to become the MRC Laboratory for Molecular Biology. The ‘hut’ as it was known was home to the MRC Molecular Biology Research Unit from 1957-1962 (and counted Kendrick and Crick amongst its members), but decayed to a semi-derelict bike-shed after Physics moved to West Cambridge in 1974 and was returned to the Department of Metallurgy. It was completely refurbished and opened in 1994 as the Rolls Royce UTC (‘Material Eyes’ 2010 and www2.mrc-lmb.cam.ac.uk).


The Hut is within the interior of the New Museums Site and is not visible from the public realm.


It is of no evident architectural or historic interest and is therefore of no significance.


The removal of the MRC hut would provide welcome space into the crowded interior of the New Museums Site offering scope for landscaping and the creation of a new courtyard space.

22


4. Rayleigh Wing

Status


Description

Built 1908 to designs of W M Fawcett. Listed as part of the original Cavendish Laboratories.

Three storey ashlar Gothic building with tiled roofs. The gabled southern three bays form a symmetrical block with transom and mullion windows. This block has parapet gables and end stacks. To the north are a projecting canted bay and a block of one bay plus door on the footpath edge. The rear is of brick with a projecting stair bay.

Interior

Generally plain interiors – painted brick walls – with some features of note. Original large open plan space at ground floor with columns and arches, now subdivided into a number of small offices. Stairwell towards northern end and large common room with bowed window. First floor contains Rayleigh Lecture Theatre with original wooden benches on raked floor and wood panelled ceiling.

Setting

The southern 3 bays are set behind a small garden area reputed to be the last remnant of the original Botanic Garden. It fronts Free School Lane which is a largely pedestrianised route almost entirely lined by listed buildings – continuous built frontage of grade II listed University buildings along the east side and grade I listed Corpus Christi buildings along the west side.

It adjoins No.3 Free School Lane (grade II listed) to the north and the original Cavendish Laboratory (grade II listed) to the south. To the rear (east) is the Arts School ‘courtyard’ which is a narrow tarmac

Orig

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1907

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Pla

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8)

Fron

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Ray

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23


surfaced area used for car parking accessed from Bene’t Street. This ‘courtyard’ is enclosed by the east wing of the original Cavendish to the south and by the Arts School (grade II listed) to the east.


The building gains its name from the former Cavendish Professor Lord Rayleigh who in 1904 won the Nobel Prize. He wished to give the money to the University, and £5,000 went to the Cavendish. J.J. Thomson suggested that the money be used to build an extension on Free School Lane, which was approved. W.M. Fawcett designed plans and Sindall tendered £7,135. Thomson offered £2,000 that he had collected from fees, and construction began in the autumn of 1907. On 16th June 1908 Lord Rayleigh opened the new Rayleigh Wing.


It is an important and attractive element within the streetscene successfully bridging the difference in style and scale between the academic buildings and the more domestic buildings closer to Bene’t Street.


Although a later element of the Cavendish Laboratories, this building forms part of the listing and was designed by the same architect. It complements the original Cavendish Range and contains some good quality features. It is therefore of high significance generally.


Improvements to the space at the rear of the Rayleigh Wing (Bene’t Yard) offer scope to enhance the setting of this building. The provision of disabled access to the upper floors would allow the reuse of the currently mothballed Rayleigh lecture theatre.

Ray

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24


5. East Wing

Status


Description

Built in 1873 as the original Cavendish Laboratory of Experimental Physics and designed by W M Fawcett – this is the original Cavendish Building despite it now being known as the East Wing.

The western (Free School Lane facing) block is of ashlar and three storeys and six bays. The upper storey has gabled half dormers within the hipped tiled roof. The tiles are modern. Most of the windows are three-light transom and mullion windows. A doorway from the old Perse School of c.1615 forms the entrance through to the rear (east) block from within the stairwell at ground floor. South of the entrance archway from Free School Lane is a canted two-storey bay which was formerly the porter’s lodge at ground floor.

The rear elevation and east wing are of gault brick with stone dressings; the former with some transom and mullion windows, the latter with timber windows beneath flat voussoired heads.

Interior

Wide heavy timber doors into the building and into some rooms with timber architraves. Timber staircase with geometric design balustrade. Stone flag floors and arches and columns evident in ground floor although obscured by later partitioning. The historic Maxwell lecture theatre is on the first floor – it contains most of its original timber panelling and carving with steeply tiered wooden benches and Gothic pendant style brick corbels supporting the timbers of the roof structure.

Setting

It fronts Free School Lane which is a largely pedestrianised route almost entirely lined by listed buildings – continuous built frontage of grade II listed University buildings along the east side and Grade I listed Corpus Christi buildings along the west side.

It is flanked by its two extensions – the Rayleigh Wing to the north and the Old Cavendish to the south. Its rear east wing effectively forms the Arts School ‘courtyard’ to the north and encloses

Orig

inal

187

1 W

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25


a tarmac surfaced area used for car parking to the south. The Austin Wing and Mond Building (Grade II listed) enclose the other sides of this space which is effectively part of a route through the west side of the New Museums Site.


The building is of great historical importance as the atom was first split here by Cockcroft and Watson in 1932 under the Professorship of Lord Rutherford.

The first Professor, James Clerk Maxwell, was appointed before the Laboratory was built. He travelled to laboratories in Glasgow and Oxford before making suggestions about the design to the architect, W.M. Fawcett. Construction began at the site in Free School Lane when Loveday of Kibworth’s tender of £8,450 was accepted on 12th March 1872. By the end of 1873 teaching had begun in the completed Lecture Hall and student laboratories.

The Laboratory for Experimental Physics was opened on 16th June 1874. The inscription on the doors, ‘Magna opera Domini exquisita in omnes voluntates ejus’, means ‘The works of the Lord are great, sought out of all them that have pleasure therein’. The Laboratory had three floors. On the second and third floors was a large lecture hall, capable of holding 180 students with seats rising steeply so that everyone could see the demonstration bench. It was described as a model of its kind.

During its construction the Laboratory had been known as the Devonshire Laboratory. At its opening it was suggested that the Laboratory be given the name ‘Cavendish’ in honour of the contributions made to physics by Henry Cavendish, the Duke’s relative. It was agreed, and the Cavendish Laboratory was named.


It is a very attractive and important element in the streetscene, helping to enclose Free School Lane.


The building has historical associations with some of the most important scientific discoveries in the C20. It is of high architectural interest and contains the relocated Perse School/Botanic Garden

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26


doorway which is of very high artistic/historic interest. Its Gothic detailing which gives it great townscape presence and its great historic importance together combine to imbue the building, particularly the west, street-facing range with very high significance.


Enhancing the permeability of the New Museums Site is a key opportunity and the establishment of a new route into the site from the north through Bene’t Yard would significantly improve access to the site. Any break through the East Wing of the Cavendish Laboratory will, however, need to be carefully considered and detailed.

The opportunity to provide disabled access to the upper levels of this important building and reuse the historic Maxwell lecture theatre would be hugely beneficial to the long term usefulness and thus conservation of this building. The provision of a high quality public realm with a welcome area of open space enclosed by the East Wing, offers great scope to enhance the setting of this building and would provide an appropriate arrival space from both the existing entrance off Free School Lane and the potential new entrance from Bene’t Street.

6. Old Cavendish Laboratory

Status


Description

Southern extension to the original Cavendish Laboratory, built in 1896 by W M Fawcett. The upper floor was added in 1920 by Harry Redfern. The building is of ashlar to the street front and gault brick to the rear. This block has a curved bay to the north, followed by a raised ground floor with six bays of large transom and mullion windows with smaller first floor windows above. The roof is of slate.

Fron

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Rea

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189

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O

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27


Interior

The ground floor is used as the Social and Political Sciences library, but was formerly laboratory space. It is still largely one volume, although some later subdivision has occurred in the north-eastern corner where a later entrance has been inserted in an original window opening, and there is a partial mezzanine. The upper floors contain office spaces which are largely formed from modern partitions. Additional office space has also been created in the roofspace.

Setting

It fronts Free School Lane which is a largely pedestrianised route almost entirely lined by listed buildings – continuous built frontage of Grade II listed University buildings along the east side and Grade I listed Corpus Christi buildings along the west side.

It adjoins the original 1873 range of the Cavendish Laboratory to the north and the Social Anthropology Wing of the Grade II listed former Laboratory of Physical Chemistry to the south. In close proximity to the rear (east) of the building is the Grade II listed Mond Laboratory with the Eric Gill crocodile carving facing the east elevation.


It forms part of the original Cavendish Laboratory where the atom was first split by Cockcroft and Watson in 1932 under Rutherford’s Professorship.

In 1890 J.J. Thomson petitioned for a three-storey extension to the Cavendish Laboratory, and in 1893 an adjoining site in Free School Lane was assigned. Thomson himself offered money that he had collected from fees, allowing the ground floor to be constructed by Sindall of Cambridge, who tendered £4,000. The extension was first used in 1896.

1920

flo

or p

lans

of

Sou

th e

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sion

to

Old

Cav

endi

sh (

CR

O

Bui

ldin

g P

lan

no. 4

218)

28



It is an attractive and important element in the streetscene, helping to enclose Free School Lane.


As part of the Old Cavendish Laboratory and designed (in part) by the same architect, this building also has historical associations with some of the most important scientific discoveries of the C20. It continues the ashlar stone of the Cavendish Laboratory range along Free School Lane and is an important part of this run of University buildings, particularly the taller north end which adjoins the original Cavendish Laboratory. It is therefore of high significance generally.


Improvements to the public realm behind the building in the space between it and the Grade II listed Mond Building offer scope to enhance it setting. Other improvements are limited to the interior by any potential changes in occupancy of the building as a result of departmental moves which could offer scope to better reveal the significance of this building.

7. Social Anthropology Wing

Status

Grade II listed

Description

In common with the other Old Physical Chemistry buildings, the Social Anthropology Wing is of 2 storeys plus attic storey and basement. The Free School Lane is of red brick with stone dressings and stepped half gables. The rear is of gault brick with plain half gables. Tiled roof with end stacks and a stepped gable to the north where the building adjoins the south wing of the Old Cavendish.

Interior

Originally single open spaces at each floor, now each floor has been subdivided to form a variety of office and teaching spaces, although the original staircase remains. Connections through to the Old Cavendish have also been made.

Free

Sch

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Win

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1912

bui

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to E

ngin

eerin

g La

bora

torie

s (C

RO

Bui

ldin

g P

lan

no. 3

271)

29


Setting

The building fronts Free School Lane which is a largely pedestrianised route almost entirely lined by listed buildings – continuous built frontage of Grade II listed University buildings along the east side and Grade I listed Corpus Christi buildings along the west side.

It is flanked by the Phoenix Building to the south and the south wing of the Old Cavendish Laboratory to the north. The Grade II listed Mond Building lies to the east across a narrow ‘lane’ between the two buildings.


Built in 1912, to designs by W C Marshall as an extension to the Engineering Laboratory, the building replaced the former Perse School Headmaster’s House.

Townscape Importance

It is an attractive and important element in the streetscene, helping to enclose Free School Lane and marks the end of the red brick Engineering Laboratories range, before the stone of the Cavendish Laboratory buildings is reached.


Although the last element of this range of listed buildings to be built, it continues the detailing of the older ranges and is an important part of this run of University buildings. It is also designed by the same architect as the much of the former Engineering Laboratories. It is therefore of high significance generally.


Improvements to the public realm behind the building in the space between it and the Grade II listed Mond Building offer scope to enhance it setting. Other improvements are limited to the interior by any potential changes in occupancy of the building as a result of departmental moves which could offer scope to better reveal the significance of this building.

8. Phoenix Building

Status

Grade II listed

Description

The Phoenix Building is the main part of the 1899/1900 extension to the Engineering Laboratories, later the Department of Chemistry (see below). It was built as the Hopkinson Wing and connects to Old Physical Chemistry by a narrow wedge-shaped range H

opki

nson

mem

oria

l pla

que

on th

e P

hoen

ix B

uild

ing

30


with a mono-pitched roof. The street-facing range is of red brick with stone detailing and a stepped gable, matching the remodelled former Perse School range to the south. The main gable end-on 2-storey range has a tiled roof.

The rear gable of the Phoenix Building was increased in height by two storeys in 1974 and links to the Balfour Building by means of a high-level bridge and to Old Metallurgy by a later glazed bridge.

Interior

At first floor level, the Hopkinson Lecture Theatre contains timber panelling and its original raked seating. The former large laboratory spaces at ground floor and behind the lecture theatre at first floor have been significantly subdivided to form office space and at the upper floor, rebuilt to accommodate an additional floor. A new external entrance has also been created on the ground floor to the rear.

Setting


It is tightly constrained to the east by the rear range of the Grade II listed Mond Building and adjoining the main range of the Old Physical Chemistry Building to the south and the Social Anthropology Wing to the north.


Dedicated to the memory of John Hopkinson (physicist and electrical engineer, killed in a skiing accident), the building was designed in 1898 by Marshall & Vickers of Bedford Square, London as an extension of the Engineering Laboratories.

John Hopkinson’s widow endowed a lectureship in thermodynamics in the hope that it would eventually become a professorship. On 10 February 1950, the Hopkinson and Imperial Chemical Industries Professor of Applied Thermodynamics was established.



Hop

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477)

31



This building is important for its historical associations and its contribution to the architectural character of Free School Lane. It is therefore considered to be of high significance generally. The flat roofed addition to the rear is, however, of low significance.


The potential remodelling or removal of the late C20 upper floors at the rear of the building would be beneficial for the heritage significance of this building. It could also help to open out this tightly constrained corner of the NMS, especially in conjunction with the potential new route through from Free School Lane (see below).

9. Old Physical Chemistry

Status


Description

Formerly the Perse School, founded c.1615. The original building was arranged around three sides of a court with buildings on the north, south and east sides and a wall with gateway surmounted by the Perse Family arms to Free School Lane. The building was altered in 1816 by William Wilkins when the main hall in the east wing and the north wing were altered to house part of the Fitzwilliam collection prior to the construction of the eponymous Museum.

The building reverted back to the School in 1842 when extensions were added apparently in ‘white brick’ including the creation of a new hall. Salvin added a rear wing in 1864. The school vacated in 1886 and in 1893 a new Engineering Laboratory was begun by adapting the old school buildings which were then extended in 1900 by the Hopkinson Wing (now the Phoenix Building see above), and again in 1909. The alterations and extensions were all undertaken by W C Marshall. The buildings were reconstructed once more in 1921 and again in 1952 by Basil Ward.

The Free School Lane elevation incorporates the remodelled northern street range and stepped gabled ends infilled by a block parallel to the street.

Interior

The main feature, and the reason for the building’s listed status, is the fine former school hall with its hammerbeam roof with pierced spandrel decoration and enriched braces and pendants which survives in the east range. The roof has been ceiled below the rafters and a floor inserted for the library.

The ‘junior wing’, added in 1864 by Salvin, has been divided to provide a mezzanine floor and forms the Whipple Museum’s side galleries. Fr

ee S

choo

l Lan

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of O

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32


1893

B

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P

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show

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rem

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of

form

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Pers

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form

Eng

inee

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Labo

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ries

(CR

O

Bui

ldin

g P

lan

no. 6

56)

The Perse Room (as the former school hall is now known) was used as the Electrical Laboratory when the building was occupied by the Department of Engineering in the early C20, but by 1931, when the buildings were mainly in the occupation of the Department of Physical Chemistry, the Perse Room was used as a library and examination hall. In 1956, when the room was acquired by the Department of History of Science to house the Whipple collection, the final bay was partitioned off to form an office, with another office above at mezzanine level.

In 1973-5 extensive work restored the Perse Room to its original form and created a new library for the Department of History and Philosophy of Science.

Within the connecting wedge-shaped range to the Phoenix Building is a single storey seminar space to the rear and former laboratory space (now male toilet) to the front. These are linked by a triangular stair arrangement, providing connections to the different levels of the Phoenix Building and the Old Physical Chemistry Building.

Setting


It adjoins the Grade II listed Cavendish Laboratory to the north and the original Porters Lodge to the south (see Old Metallurgy for description). The Social Anthropology Wing is in close proximity to the south end of the Grade II listed Mond Building, whilst the Phoenix Building effectively encloses the west side of the thin narrow space that runs behind the Pembroke Street frontage buildings. M026 is linked to the Balfour Building by a high-level bridge. The main body of the building is linked into the Heycock Wing by a modern glass bridge which spans a small triangular space formed between the two buildings.


The building was the first Cambridge Free School, founded as a bequest by Stephen Perse, a fellow of Caius College. During the early C19 the school was neglected by the trustees and lost pupils so the Fitzwilliam collection was housed in the Perse Hall from 1816-1842.

1900

sta

irwel

l bet

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n P

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ix B

uild

ing

and

Old

P

hysi

cal C

hem

istry

33


Exa

min

atio

ns S

choo

ls

In 1890, the school moved to new premises and the old building was sold to the University of Cambridge as part of a massive expansion of the New Museums Site which included the construction of the adjoining Cavendish Laboratories. The building was occupied by the Department of Engineering in the early C20 and later, it became part of the Department of Physical Chemistry – this use is remembered by the words ‘Laboratory of Physical Chemistry’ which are carved above the front door.

The Department of History of Science acquired the Perse Room in 1956 to house the Whipple collection, now known as the Whipple Museum.




This building is important for its local historical associations, surviving early fabric and its contribution to the architectural character of Free School Lane. It is therefore considered to be of high significance.


Enhancing the permeability of the New Museums Site (NMS) is a key opportunity, as is the enhancement of the existing Museums on the site. The establishment of a new entrance to the Whipple Museum, distinct from the HPS Department entrance, alongside the creation of a new route into the site from the west would improve access to the NMS and clearly define a new DDA compliant Whipple Museum entrance. This could be achieved by breaking through the existing single storey link between the Phoenix Building and Old Physical Chemistry. Any break through the built fabric of the Grade II listed building will, however, need to be carefully considered and detailed.

10. Examination Schools

Status

None

Description

Built in 1909 by W C Marshall with additional floors inserted in 1964-5 by Alec Crook when the building was converted to laboratory space for the Cavendish. The acoustics of the hall were improved in 1938 by Dr Alex Wood and Mr Hope Bagenal.

Gault brick with stone detailing and some transom and mullion windows; those on the upper storey modified to accommodate the extra floor. Hipped slate roof. Single

34


storey Clipsham stone ashlar entrance projection on south side with open segmental pediment and some transom and mullion windows. The single pane windows and flat roof plant room above the stone entrance range were added in 1976. Largely free-standing ventilation tower to the rear (northeast).

Interior

Originally two large partially vaulted spaces. The larger examination hall has been sub-divided with the insertion of two floors and a staircase and associated alterations to the foyer area and windows. The ground and first floors contain office and technical spaces. The upper floor remains a single open space with a decorative coffered ceiling and ceiling roses.

The building is linked to the Arts School by a ground floor doorway from the small hall, and at basement level through a later opening.

Setting

The building abuts the Grade II listed Arts School to the west and partially abuts the rear of the Grade II listed Barclays Bank on Bene’t Street to the north. It encloses a narrow ‘route’ through to the Parson’s Court ‘entrance’ into the New Museums Site alongside the rear of the Grade II listed Corn Exchange. It also encloses the north side of the ‘courtyard’ formed by the Austin Building and the David Attenborough Building.


The Examination Schools building was part of the early C20 northern expansion of the NMS and therefore has some historic interest as forming part of the last phase of expanding the boundaries of the site, in common with the Arts School and the Cavendish Rayleigh Wing. It was used as a temporary hospital by Addenbrooke’s during the Second World War (returned to the University in 1945), and was subsequently used by the Cavendish (which had expanded considerably across the NMS) for a decade or so from 1964-65.

1909

Inte

rior e

leva

tion

of la

rge

exam

hal

l (C

RO

Bui

ldin

g pl

an n

o. 2

752)

35



The building is within the interior of the New Museums Site and almost entirely hidden from the public realm, tucked between the Grade II listed Arts School, the David Attenborough Building and the Grade II listed Corn Exchange and Wheeler Street properties. Only the north-western corner with the ventilation tower become visible, together with an oblique view of the eastern elevation, when the southern extremity of Parson’s Court is reached.


Although one of the earlier buildings on the site, it is, with the exception of the south frontage, a relatively utilitarian building with considerable alterations. It also sits awkwardly with buildings within and outside the site and has virtually no townscape presence. It is therefore considered to be of moderate to low significance.


The potential replacement of this building with a new high quality building offers scope to respond much more positively to the current context and address a new public realm within the site to the south. Its loss would need to be fully justified and the design of any new building would need to respond positively to the new courtyard space that could be created to the south with the removal of the MRC Hut (see above).

1964

Exa

min

atio

n S

choo

ls a

ltera

tions

for C

aven

dish

Lab

orat

ory

(Pla

nnin

g re

f: C

/64/

0176

)

36


11. Arts School

Status

Grade II Listed

Description

Built in 1910 to the designs of G Hubbard and A W Moore. Red brick and stone and in a revived Georgian style. 3 storey, 7 bay front to yard with 6/6 sash windows; the centre 3 bays project forward beneath a carved pediment. Attached is a single storey entrance block of stone with balustrade and pilasters. The roof is of tiles and hipped to the main range with lantern lights and copper flat roofs to the rear (east).

Interior

Basement contains reset archways of the Augustinian Friary buildings that were excavated when the Arts School was built. The ground floor contains lecture rooms and a lecture theatre while the upper floors contain the Central Science Library and associated offices. These functions encompass the former common room at first floor and the original library space on the second floor, in addition to a number of former classrooms. Good early C20 detailing throughout, with some later alterations including the installation of a lift, subdivision of rooms, new basement stairs and altered basement layout.

Arts

Sch

ool

Arts

Sch

ool L

ectu

re T

heat

re

Res

et A

ugus

tinia

n Fr

iary

arc

hes

in b

asem

ent o

f Arts

Sch

ool

Arts

Sch

ool L

ibra

ryA

rts S

choo

l Com

mon

Roo

m

37


Setting

The Arts School encloses the east side of a narrow tarmac surfaced ‘courtyard’ used for car parking and accessed from Bene’t Street – this is now known informally as Bene’t Yard. This courtyard is enclosed by the east wing of the original Grade II listed Cavendish Laboratory to the south and the Rayleigh Wing to the west.


The Arts School was built to provide accommodation for History, Medieval and Modern Languages, Moral Sciences and other Departments for which the provision at the Divinity School and elsewhere had long been insufficient.

The Cambridge Philosophical Society’s Library has been accommodated in the building since c1935, although the library has been housed by the University since 1821 and from 1865 on the New Museums Site, in a building on the site of the present Cockcroft Building. Before the Cambridge Philosophical Society’s library was installed in the Arts School, the second floor library accommodated the Seeley Historical Library (which was relocated from a room in King’s College), the Medieval and Modern Languages Library, and the Moral Sciences and Economics Library. The Beit Library of books on German language and literature was held in an adjacent room from 1913 when Sir Otto Beit’s donation supported the acquisition of books by the first Schröder Professor of German (Karl Hermann Breul) at the University.

Students of the Indian Civil Service (ICS) were also accommodated within the Arts School and had a library in Room E (possibly the ground floor room south of the Bene’t Yard entrance). (The ICS was the elite higher civil service of the British Empire in South Asia during British rule in the area between 1858 (following the demise of the East India Company’s rule) and 1947 when India and Pakistan gained independence. Successful candidates for entry to the ICS, prior to their assignment to India, spent one or two years’ probation in England which was spent at the University of Cambridge or Oxford or the School of Oriental Studies in London.)


The Arts School is largely hidden from public view (the protruding ground floor element is the most readily apparent part of the building) and is tightly enclosed by the surrounding buildings which generally have a far more public presence. With these surrounding buildings, the Arts School encloses the ‘courtyard’ (now informally known as Bene’t Yard) which is identified within the City Council’s Core Appraisal (2006) as being in need of improvement

Cro

ss-s

ectio

ns fr

om 1

910

build

ing

plan

s (C

ambr

idge

Uni

vers

ity L

ibra

ry R

ef:

GB

R/0

256/

P.XX

III)

38


The building contributes generally to the conservation area as it is one of the later purpose-built University buildings which together form a characteristic of the conservation area. However, individually, it does not contribute actively to the character and appearance of the conservation area.


The building contains the remains of the Augustinian Friary which lends it very high archaeological interest. It is also however an attractive building internally and externally with a remarkably formal front elevation considering its aspect onto a yard area. It is therefore considered to be of high significance generally.


The Arts School has always suffered from its cramped position, squeezed in between the existing buildings. The creation of a new route through Bene’t Yard into the site by breaking through the East Wing of the Old Cavendish Laboratory (see building 5 above) would create a more fitting context for the formal elevation of this underappreciated building. Similarly, the provision of a high quality public realm within Bene’t Yard offers great scope to enhance the setting of this building.

The removal of at least the northern end of the Austin Building would reveal the south elevation of this building for the first time in its history – it was previously hidden by Salvin’s Mineralogy building which stood on the site of the Austin Building.

12. David Attenborough Building

Status

None

Description

Built 1966-71 to the designs of Philip Dowson of Arup Associates. The building is raised on an in situ concrete podium, 12ft above ground level with a precast concrete structure above podium level and the frame up to podium level cast in-situ. It is planned on Arup Associates’ ‘tartan’ grid principle with alternating major and minor bays. The minor bays provide unstructured spaces between the major bays, allowing vertical services to rise centrally and distribute from headers to required points. The major bays are left free for large laboratory spaces. Two lead-clad office towers are ‘plugged in’ to the east and west of the main laboratory block.

In 2013, planning permission was granted for alterations to the building including a southern extension to form a new entrance for the Museum of Zoology. The works completely refurbish the building for the Cambridge Conservation Initiative’s occupation of the building in 2015.

Interior

Large laboratory spaces divided by service cores and corridors within the main block – the Zoology Museum is housed in the south end of the building. Smaller office accommodation within the towers. Plain detailing and some later sub-division and alterations.

39


Setting

Linked into the Grade II listed Zoology Building via high-level bridge (part of the original design), the building is also linked to the Cockcroft Building via a later (1973) bridge. It encloses the north side of the only real area of landscaping in the New Museums Site – the grassed area in front of the Zoology Museum (currently being re-landscaped as part of the refurbishment programme). It also encloses the ‘courtyard’ formed by the Examinations Schools and the Cockcroft Building and Austin Wing. Across Corn Exchange Street to the east is the Grand Arcade development. The building also abuts the Grade II listed Corn Exchange.


No known significant historical associations, although recently re-named the David Attenborough Building in honour of the new use of the building as a collaborative hub for the collaboration between the University, the Cambridge-based cluster of conservation organisations and the Museum of Zoology. The building has planning permission for significant alterations, an extension and overall refurbishment including a new entrance foyer for the Museum of Zoology and fit-for-purpose accommodation for the Cambridge Conservation Initiative.


The below podium level which is the building’s main public face was never designed to be seen and the narrowness of the road means that the building appears bulky, contributing to the canyon-like feel of Corn Exchange Street. The building sits awkwardly within the New Museums Site and the public approach to the Zoology Museum is not particularly welcoming.


The building is by an architect of some renown and is considered to be of some architectural interest (it was the subject of a recent unsuccessful spot listing request), although not without criticism. Its townscape contribution is, however, limited given its position within the New Museums Site and its main public face is the east side along Corn Exchange Street which was not designed

Dav

id A

ttenb

orou

gh B

uild

ing

40


to be seen and presents a blank façade which contributes negatively to this street. Nonetheless, it is considered to be significant because of its overall architectural interest, as acknowledged by the listing notification report which readily acknowledges the building’s ‘design quality with its inverted ziggurat form’, although this element is not considered to be innovative.


The David Attenborough Building is effectively Phase 1 of the site-wide redevelopment of the New Museums Site and thus most of its potential has been realised through the soon-to-be-completed refurbishment works. There is, however, still scope to better integrate the west side of the building into an enhanced high quality public realm within the New Museums Site.

13. The Shell Building

Status

Building of Local Interest

Description

The frontage building was built in 1907/8 to designs by Stevenson & Redfern and was built as a considerable extension to Stevenson’s original Chemistry Laboratories which it adjoins to the east. The large rear wing was added in 1958-9 to the designs of Murray Easton following a benefaction from the Shell Company and replaced an earlier 2-storey north extension, seemingly built in two phases – the ground floor in c1919 and the upper floor c1921 – funded by the British Oil Companies.

The frontage building is of stone and of similar style to both Old Metallurgy and the Zoology Building and is of stone with a rusticated basement with arched openings and two floors above with transom and mullion windows. The projecting bays have paired pilaster strips and heavily carved banding between the upper floors and as an eaves cornice. The two bays have heavily carved segmental pediments.

Pem

brok

e S

treet

190

7 ex

tens

ion

to C

hem

ical

Lab

orat

orie

s

41


The

She

ll B

uild

ing

1907

Blo

ck P

lan

show

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posi

tion

of C

hem

ical

Lab

orat

ory

exte

nsio

n (C

RO

Bui

ldin

g pl

an n

o. 2

643)

Interior

Plain interiors within the 1950s block with central corridor spine and offices and laboratories either side. Similar arrangement within the original frontage block with new floors inserted which do not necessarily relate to the street elevation fenestration pattern. No original features remain within the 1907/8 frontage block - the interior was entirely gutted and remodelled when the 1958-9 rear wing was added. [Building byelaw plan and approval for demolition of the existing chemistry laboratory and construction of new laboratories for Department of Chemical Engineering (CRO ref: CB/2/SE/3/9/22109) granted 16 January 1956 – plans not available in Cambridge Record Office.]

Setting

The 1907 frontage forms part of the continuous range of University/College buildings along Downing/Pembroke Street, all statutorily or locally listed.


No known significant historical associations.


The frontage building is important in townscape terms as part of the run of similar university properties along Pembroke Street / Downing Street.


The 1907 frontage building is of high townscape importance in common with the other frontage buildings – its surviving facades are therefore considered to be of high significance. The 1950s wing to the rear, however, lacks any townscape presence and is of little architectural merit – it is considered to be of low significance.


The current access into the New Museums Site from Pembroke Street is extremely congested and constrained, with all movements (pedestrian, cyclists and vehicular) channelled through the existing archway between the 1907 building and the Grade II listed Zoology Building.

42


Enhancing the permeability of the NMS is a key opportunity and the establishment of an improved access into the site from the south through the 1907 buildings would significantly enhance the legibility of the site. Any new openings through the 1907 building will, however, need to be carefully considered and detailed.

Associated with the potential to improve access to the NMS is the potential removal of the 1950s rear extension. This would allow the above new openings to be made through the 1907 frontage into the site, but would also offer scope to significantly open up the site at this key entrance point. This would provide welcome space into the crowded interior of the NMS and offer scope for landscaping and the creation of a new courtyard space that would link into the public realm enhancements underway between the Zoology Building and the David Attenborough Building.

14. Goldsmiths Laboratory

Status


Description

Approval for designs by Harry Redfern gained in 1919. Single storey building with a sheeted north-light roof.

Interior

Originally simply divided into two spaces, the former analytical room (the larger space) has been subdivided to form laboratory and office spaces.

Setting

Sits between the original Chemical Laboratories (a BLI) which it adjoins and the 1907/1958 Chemical Laboratories extension (a BLI). It is completely enclosed by the flanking buildings with the exception of its northern elevation which faces the Cockcroft Building across a tarmac-surfaced route through the New Museums Site.

Roo

f of G

olds

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s La

bora

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1919

Blo

ck p

lan

show

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north

ext

ensi

ons

to C

hem

ical

La

bora

torie

s (C

RO

bui

ldin

g pl

an n

o. 4

066)

43



The building was constructed as a dedicated laboratory for Heycock who became a Reader in Metallurgy when it was a recognised scientific activity and moved into the University in 1908. Heycock’s position and the laboratory were both funded by the Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths. In 1931, Professor Robert Hutton became the first Goldsmiths’ Professor and an independent Department of Metallurgy was created.


The building is within the interior of the New Museums Site and is not visible from the public realm. It is a small-scale (single storey) rear addition to the original Chemical Laboratories.


Although this building has no townscape presence and is a relatively utilitarian building, it has historical associations with the creation of the Department of Metallurgy and is therefore considered to be of moderate significance.


The removal of the Goldsmith’s Laboratory hut would also contribute to significantly opening up the NMS at this key entrance point (currently a pinch point), offering scope to provide a high quality and welcoming public realm.

Inte

rior o

f mai

n la

bora

tory

spa

ce w

ithin

Gol

dsm

ith’s

Lab

orat

ory

44


15. Old Metallurgy

Status


Description

The ‘Old Metallurgy’ building was constructed in 1886-8 to the designs of JJ Stevenson in Jacobean style as part of the original chemistry laboratories. They are of Ancaster stone and red brick with Ancaster stone facings. Extensions by Stevenson and Harry Redfern, architect, completed in 1909 (The Shell Building, see above) and 1921 (the upper two storeys of the north wing) following a gift of £210,000 which was made by the British Oil Companies to the University in 1919 for the purpose of extending and developing the Chemical Laboratory. The prominent upper floors to the eastern part of the building were added in 1960-1 and are Ketton stone faced.

The street frontage of the original chemical laboratories is in three parts. Old Metallurgy is the range to the east and is the tallest with (originally) a ground and two upper floors. This has a prominent two storey addition to the western end of the roof and the rest of the roof has also been modified. This element has a lightly projecting entrance with the ground floor treated as a rusticated basement with arched openings and keystones. Above are large transom and mullion windows three lights high. The windows are separated by paired pilaster strips and the floors by moulded bands and a cornice at eaves level.

The rear wing, of red brick and stone is largely contemporary (the upper two floors were added in 1920/21) and includes stone pilasters and detailing and windows incorporating glazed ‘fume cupboards’ on the external sills. This wing has been altered at roof level and defaced by modern flues and fire escape stairs.

Interior

The key feature of interest is the staircase which has an unusual spiral balustrade detail. Some fireplaces and 6-panelled doors also survive throughout the building. The roof storey and top of

Old

Met

allu

rgy

1920

Wes

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ext

ensi

on to

rear

win

g of

‘Old

Met

allu

rgy’

(C

RO

bui

ldin

g pl

an n

o. 4

206)

45


the stairwell are lit by skylights. The large laboratory space in the top floor has the roof structure exposed. A later small lecture theatre has been installed in the first floor.

Setting

Part of a continuous range of University/College buildings along Downing/Pembroke Street, all statutorily or locally listed. It adjoins the 1907/8 range of the Shell Building to the east whilst the Heycock Wing (and Porter’s Lodge) range turns the corner into Free School Lane and adjoins Old Physical Chemistry which is Grade II listed. The rear wing of Old Metallurgy adjoins the Goldsmiths Laboratory.

The rear of Old Metallurgy together with the rear of Old Physical Chemistry (a recent extension) forms a small tarmac surfaced ‘courtyard’ which contains a fire escape and covered bike racks.


Originally built for the Chemistry Department, Heycock (who became a Reader in Metallurgy) was granted research space in the building. In 1931, an independent Department of Metallurgy was created, but was still housed in part of the old Chemistry building alongside the Goldsmiths Laboratory extension which was purpose-built for Heycock (see above). By 1950, the Department of Metallurgy was occupying over a dozen rooms in the basement of Chemistry. When the new Chemistry buildings on Lensfield Road were opened in 1958, the Department of Metallurgy took over more space in the Pembroke Street building. Despite the opening of the David Attenborough

Old

Met

allu

rgy

stai

rs

Roo

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labo

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rear

win

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Old

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Pem

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treet

ele

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Old

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1886

Pem

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ele

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Labo

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(Cam

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Lib

rary

Ref

: G

BR

/025

6/P.

XIX)

46


Building in 1971, space for Metallurgy was retained in the old Chemistry building (‘Material Eyes’ 2010).


The frontage building is important in townscape terms as part of the run of similar university properties along Pembroke Street / Downing Street.


This range of the old chemical laboratories is considered to be of high significance due to its importance to the townscape of Pembroke Street/Downing Street. It also has some historical importance as the original location of the Department of Metallurgy. The rear wing is also of interest due to the original architectural detailing including the external window boxes (part of the 1921 extension). The building has been much altered, however, including the addition of the boxy roof extension, and these later additions are considered to be of no significance.


The stripping back of all the later accretions on this building together with the remodelling at least of the boxy roof extension would better reveal the significance of this building and enhance its already strong contribution to the character and appearance of the conservation area.

The potential removal of the Goldsmiths Laboratory from the eastern elevation of the rear wing (together with the potential removal of the 1958 Shell Building extension) would restore the original prominence of this attractive building. The removal of these buildings would also offer scope for the creation of high quality open space that would provide an enhanced setting for this building.

16. Heycock Wing

Status


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vatio

n of

Por

ter’s

Lod

ge

Hey

cock

Win

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ted

arch

way

from

Pem

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47


Description

The Heycock Wing is the middle and west ranges of the old chemical laboratories built in 1886/7 to designs by JJ Stevenson. The eastern range is now known as Old Metallurgy and described above.

The middle section is of two storeys and attic and predominantly of three bays but with an additional bay linking it to the above. The detailing is similar to the east block though the central bay only has a three-light high central first floor bay with a broken segmental pediment above. The flanking windows are two lights high. The roof is hipped and of tiles with lead rolls and a pedimented dormer at the west end. This section contains one of the early entrances to the site with an archway from the street which included a Porter’s lodge and other rooms all with attractive stone door surrounds. The archway has wrought iron decorative gates which were recently unsuccessfully considered for spot listing. In the passageway accessed by this archways, a modern glass bridge links the rear of Old Metallurgy to Old Physical Chemistry.

The western section is a lower building which turns the corner into Free School Lane with an attractive curve. The building has a more domestic appearance with simpler detailing including sash windows within plainer surrounds and square mullions. The rustication of the ground floor is similar to the eastern blocks however. The end-piece to Free School lane has a slightly projecting bay with segmental dormer facing Free School Lane. The tiled roof has a large stone chimney stack with arched niche and attractive mouldings.

Interior

The porter’s lodge originally contained domestic quarters with a kitchen and parlour on the ground floor and bedrooms on the first floor. Today it contains small office and seminar spaces, although the floorplan survives, as do the stairs. The Heycock Wing has, however, in common with the Old Metallurgy range of the old chemical laboratories been substantially altered with the insertion of a mezzanine level and the removal of the original lecture theatre on the raised ground floor.

Setting

Part of a continuous range of University/College buildings along Downing/Pembroke Street, all statutorily or locally listed. It adjoins the Old Metallurgy range of the old chemical laboratories to the east and, around the corner of Free School Lane, adjoins Old Physical Chemistry which is Grade II listed.

1886

Wes

t ele

vatio

n of

Old

Che

mic

al L

abor

ator

ies

(Cam

brid

ge U

nive

rsity

Lib

rary

Ref

: GB

R/0

256/

P.XI

X)

1885

Pla

n of

New

Mus

eum

s S

ite s

how

ing

posi

tion

of

chem

ical

labo

rato

ries

(Cam

brid

ge U

nive

rsity

Lib

rary

ref:

GB

R/0

256/

P.XV

III)

48


View

of P

orte

r’s L

odge

from

Fre

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e

To the rear of the Porter’s Lodge is a small enclosed yard which is the remains of the garden which originally ran north along Free School Lane towards the Perse School before this was redeveloped as the Engineering Laboratories in 1893-1900.

Historic importance

Although now named after Heycock, the Metallurgy Department was concentrated in the eastern taller range of the old chemical laboratories and Heycock’s dedicated laboratory space was the Goldsmiths Laboratory.


The buildings are important as part of the run of similar university properties along Pembroke Street/Downing Street. The curved corner of the Porter’s Lodge range into Free School Lane is an attractive feature in the streetscene.


This range of the old chemical laboratories is considered to be of high significance due to its importance to the townscape of Pembroke Street/Downing Street and Free School Lane. It is particularly successful at turning the corner into Free School Lane and reflecting the more domestic scale of properties in this street.


Tidying up of the passageway through to the interior of the site through the removal of later additions and plant would make this early entrance into the NMS a more attractive alternative route to the other Pembroke Street archway (regardless of the potential works there). This would enhance the legibility and permeability of the NMS and would tie into the potential public realm enhancements in the interior of the site.

49


17. Austin Wing

Status

None

Description

Built in 1939-40 to the designs of Adams, Holden and Pearson and built by Rattee and Kett.

The main north-south range is of brown brick with stone detailing to the doors and a continuous band to the third floor. A lower brick and glazed block on the northern end stops just short of the Arts School south elevation and has an external passageway running through at ground floor.

Projecting west from the main brown brick range is a 2-storey and single storey range of white brick which connects into the slightly earlier Mond Building Annexe (described below – see building no.21).

In 1959-60 an extra floor was added to the main block by Alec Crook and is copper clad.

Interior

The original plan form with a central spine corridor and offices either side remains today. Part of the building was modernised in 1999 to form the Gordon Laboratory, part of the Department of Metallurgy.


From www.cambridgephysics.org: Herbert Austin, the car manufacturer, gave £250,000 in 1936 to build the Austin Wing of the Laboratory to relieve the cramped conditions in the Cavendish. The main responsibility for planning the Austin Wing was left with Professor J.D. Cockcroft. Building began in May 1938, with Lord Austin laying the foundation stone a year later. When the Second World War began in 1939 it looked like construction might have to

1938

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show

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rem

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of

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and

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with

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of

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)

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of A

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with

in A

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50


stop, so it was agreed the building could be used for war work. The Austin Wing was finished in June 1940 but the work performed there was top secret. At the start of 1945 the new laboratory was handed back to the University.

The design of the Austin Wing was simple and flexible. The building had four floors with light interior walls, allowing offices to be adapted as needs arose. The second floor was set aside for administration for the entire Cavendish, and also housed the library and social meeting rooms. A series of group photographs of researchers, running from 1897 and only broken by the two wars, ran along the walls of this floor. The other floors were set aside for research, with no undergraduate teaching in the new Wing. The Austin Wing cost £77,000 and apparatus and fittings a further £15,000.

A plaque on the building, unveiled in 1993 by HRH Duke of Edinburgh, commemorates Crick and Watson who, in 1953, determined the structure of DNA in the Austin Wing.

Setting

The building forms the west side of the ‘courtyard’ enclosed by the Examinations Schools, David Attenborough Building and Balfour Building which it adjoins to the south. The L-shape of the building encloses the north and east sides of the Grade II listed Mond Building.

The Austin Wing of the Cavendish replaced the north-south range of Salvin’s mid-C19 central buildings. These C19 buildings had accommodated the expansion of the Cavendish throughout the earlier decades of the C20 as it first expanded into the former Engineering etc. buildings behind the original Cavendish Laboratory in c.1922 and throughout the 1930s expanded into the floors of these C19 buildings formerly occupied by Zoology and Mineralogy.

The Austin Wing was built on almost on the same footprint as the former Engineering/Mineralogy building and replicates the same constrained relationship with the Arts School. The only surviving elements of Salvin’s buildings are the west and south elevations of the Balfour Building which the Austin Wing adjoins on the north.

Wes

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Aus

tin B

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51


Coc

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ldin

g (M

039)


The building is within the interior of the New Museums Site and is not visible from the public realm. It is however generally considered to be overly tall within its context and it dominates the modest scale of the Grade II listed Mond Building and its Annexe (a BLI) which is incorporated into the western range of the Austin Building.


Although in a broadly modern movement style, the building is not of particularly high architectural interest emphasised by addition of the later roof storey. It was however built as the result of a benefaction by Lord Austin and was where Crick and Watson worked on the identification of DNA. It is therefore considered to be of moderate significance.


The opportunity to reduce the mass of the core buildings within the NMS offers scope to considerably enhance the setting of the heritage assets within the site. The remodelling or partial/complete demolition of the Austin Building offers the potential to significantly enhance the setting of the Arts School and the Mond Building in particular. Reduction in the mass of this building offers scope for public realm improvements around the remodelled building with additional benefits to the setting of the surrounding heritage assets and the site and therefore conservation area generally.

18. Cockcroft Building

Status

None

Description

Built to designs of 1936 by Adams, Holden and Pearson as a High Tension Laboratory, it was remodelled and extended by Alec Crook c.1962. Brick, flat roofed building similar to the Austin Wing and with stone used for the door surrounds and plat bands. The floor levels are different to the Austin wing.

The east end is rendered and almost entirely blank as this elevation was only revealed with the demolition of the flanking Salvin building when the Arup Building (now the David Attenborough Building) was constructed. The Cockcroft Building was, until very recently, linked by a high-level bridge to the David Attenborough Building.

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Interior

The building contains the Cockcroft lecture theatre and several laboratories.

Setting

The building forms the south side of the ‘courtyard’ enclosed by the Examinations Schools, the David Attenborough Building and the Austin Building. It adjoins the Balfour Building to the west and faces the north elevation of the 1958 Shell Building at close proximity.


Built as the New Cavendish High Tension Laboratory, the building was extended and remodelled in c1962 by Alec Crook to provide more accommodation for the ever-expanding Cavendish Laboratory.

The building is named after John Cockcroft, a British physicist, who shared the Nobel Prize in Physics for splitting the atomic nucleus with Ernest Walton, and was instrumental in the development of nuclear power. Despite the dedication to Cockcroft, there are no known significant historical associations with the building.


The building is within the interior of the New Museums Site and is not visible from the public realm, although its eastern rendered end is visible upon entering the site through the Pembroke Street archway. This is a very utilitarian and foreboding elevation however and not the focus of views.


This building is of little architectural/historical interest, has no known particular historical interest and has no townscape importance. It is therefore considered to be of low significance generally.

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The removal or remodelling of this building offers scope to provide a better quality building in a similar position that responds much better to its context and positively addresses a new high quality public realm that could be enabled as part of its redevelopment.

19. Balfour Building

Status

None

Description

The Balfour Building’s visible elevations (west and south) are Italianate in style and of gault brick and stone detailing and appear to be a relic of the mid-C19 Salvin buildings. The rusticated semi-basement has been much altered and above is round arched windows with expressed keystones and roundels between with at first floor central windows with pediments. Part of the roof is slate and hipped and part has been incorporated into the raised part of the Cockcroft Building.

Interior

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The building has been completely gutted and modernised internally with the insertion and removal of floors and does not appear to contain any original features. The lower floors are largely used for storage, whilst the upper floors contains offices and teaching spaces.

Originally the interior appears to have contained large lecture rooms for the Engineering department and the Botanical and Jacksonian Professors.

Setting

The building adjoins the Grade II listed Mond Building to the west, the unlisted Cockcroft Building to the east and the unlisted Austin Wing to the north. To the south it faces, at very close proximity, the rear of Old Metallurgy.


Named after Francis Maitland Balfour, a lecturer in embryology and animal morphology and a supporter of women’s education in the sciences, the building’s name commemorates the first women’s science laboratory which was housed in the former Congregational Chapel on the corner of Downing Place from 1884-1914. The Balfour Library was accommodated in the present building which was formerly occupied by Engineering.

The building appears to incorporate the last surviving range of the original Salvin designed buildings which were the first to be purpose built for the sciences on the New Museums Site. The west and south elevations of the Salvin design survive (although altered) as does the hipped roof potentially. The original interior does however appear to have been entirely lost in subsequent redevelopments, presumably when the 1962 remodelling of the adjoining High Tension Laboratory occurred.


The building is within the interior of the New Museums Site and is not visible from the public realm. Its surviving Italianate features are however noteworthy in contrast to the plain elevations of the Austin Building and Cockcroft Building which adjoin them.

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The building is hidden away and makes little townscape contribution, particularly in its current context. However, as a rare survival of one of the earlier buildings on the site, the building has some architectural interest, notably the Italianate elevations. The exterior is considered to be significant whilst the interior is of low significance.


The building is awkwardly constrained by the utilitarian Cockcroft and Austin Buildings and has the Grade II listed Mond Building adjoining at a low level to the west. There is great scope to enhance the surviving historic features of this building by removing/remodelling the Austin and Cockcroft Buildings (and potentially the rear of the Mond Building) to better reveal this building’s significance. The surviving historic features should be retained and enhanced in any redevelopment.

20. Mond Building

Status


Description

White brick building of 1932 by H.C. Hughes built following a £15,000 bequest by Ludwig Mond for the physicist Piotr Kapitza. On the northwest corner is a full-height circular concrete staircase and entrance tower. The incised crocodile motif is by Eric Gill and is said to represent Kapitza’s nickname for Lord Rutherford.

Interior

The principal feature is the concrete staircase within a partly open well – the rest of the interior is plain and functional. The whole building was refurbished in 2006.

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Setting

The building is enclosed by buildings on all sides and adjoins the Balfour Building to the east. The Mond Building Annexe (a BLI) to the north of the Mond Building itself is part of the western projection of the Austin Building which wraps around the Mond Building to the east. To the west is the rear of the south wing of the Grade II listed Cavendish Laboratory and the rear of the Grade II listed Social Anthropology Wing.


From www.cambridgephysics.org: By the 1930s conditions in the Cavendish Laboratory had become too much for many researchers, who were abandoning the Laboratory to work in more comfortable conditions elsewhere. Pyotr Kapitza, a Russian physicist, persuaded Rutherford to use £15,000 from the Royal Society to build the Mond Laboratory. H.C. Hughes designed the building with large communal areas rather than long corridors, a design which promoted chance meetings between research students as they moved about the building. The ideas that were exchanged during such chance meetings were found highly beneficial to research, and the layout of the Mond inspired the design of the new Cavendish Laboratory in West Cambridge, 40 years later. In February 1933 the Mond was opened.

Kapitza had asked the modern artist Eric Gill to decorate the building with two carvings. The first was a crocodile on the outside of the building. ‘Crocodile’ was Kapitza’s name for Rutherford, as it was a name given to great men in Russian folklore. He also said that Rutherford was like the crocodile in the children’s story Peter Pan, and that while the latter could be heard approaching by the ticking of Captain Hook’s watch, Rutherford’s booming voice would usually arrive before him!

The second carving was a profile of Rutherford, in the entrance hall of the Mond. This carving provoked years of controversy, as Gill had produced the carving in an Assyrian style which some claimed made Rutherford look Jewish. Rutherford himself was not offended by the carving, but left it up to his friend Niels Bohr to decide whether it should be moved. Bohr was sent a photograph of the carving, and found it to be ‘most excellent, being at the same time thoughtful and powerful’. Kapitza was delighted that the carving would stay, and had Gill send a copy of the carving to Bohr in thanks for the ‘role he played in saving its life’.

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The building is within the interior of the New Museums Site and is not visible from the public realm, although upon entering the site through the Free School Lane gateway, the curved stairtower is an eye-catching feature in views to the south.


This building is an important example of the Modern Movement style on Cambridge by a good local architect of the time. Artistic interest is provided by the carved crocodile by the eminent, if controversial, designer / sculptor Eric Gill and links to Kapitza and Rutherford. It is therefore considered to be of high significance generally.


Potential enhancements to the building itself are limited as it was recently (2006) comprehensively refurbished. However, there are potential opportunities to remodel the rear substation element (possibly in conjunction with the remodelling of the rear of the Phoenix Building) which constrains movement around this part of this part of the New Museums Site. This could also potentially reveal more of the Balfour Building façade.

21. Mond Building Annexe

Status


Description

The annexe is almost contemporary with the Mond Building, with amended plans for the ‘Cavendish Workshop’ as it was originally known, submitted the following year (1932). It is also designed by H C Hughes.

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It is a single storey white-brick structure with a flat roof. It has large metal-framed casement windows and recessed brick banding. The north-east corner is chamfered in a zig-zag pattern.

It adjoins the Austin Building (see above) to the east via a single and 2-storey range of matching white brick.

Interior

Plain and with no features of note. It is used as a library storage facility and the original east wall (formed from part of the mid-C19 Mineralogy building elevation against which it was built) was removed when subsumed into a larger room when the Austin Wing was built.

Setting

It adjoins, and is effectively part of, the Austin Building into which it was subsumed when the Austin Wing was built in 1939-40. It sits in a ‘courtyard’ enclosed by the East wing of the original Cavendish Laboratory to the north and the street-facing range of the same building to the west. To the south, is the Mond Building itself.

Historic importance

Together with the Mond Building itself, the annexe is the first University building at Cambridge explicitly of the Modern Movement (Pevsner and Bradley 2014). The original plans for the annexe (originally known as the Cavendish Workshop), submitted alongside the plans for the Building in 1931, were slightly larger and were for a free-standing building. The designs for the annexe were resubmitted the following year (1932) showing a slightly smaller building, now attached to the Mineralogy building.


Part of the western elevation is seen in views through the Cavendish archway in Free School Lane, but does not successfully terminate this view. The building is therefore visible from the public

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realm, but does not actively contribute to it, and at best could be considered to make a neutral contribution to the character and appearance of the conservation area.


Although a Building of Local Interest, presumably because of its limited connections with the Mond Building, largely due to its design by the same architect, the building is however of limited architectural or historic interest (as it has been significantly altered) and makes little contribution to the townscape. It is therefore considered to be of moderate significance generally.


The potential removal of this building, in conjunction with the potential partial demolition/ remodelling of the Austin Wing, would provide welcome space into the crowded interior of the New Museums Site. This would be particularly beneficial at this entrance point into the site and the resultant new courtyard space that could be created offers scope to significantly enhance the setting of the surrounding designated heritage assets, and particularly the Mond Building which could be better appreciated.

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Square

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High

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Very High

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Moderate New Museums Site

KEY

Heritage Significance Plan

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4.0 TOWNSCAPE AND SPATIAL ANALYSIS

General

4.01 The townscape of the New Museums Site is not highly regarded. Pevsner describes it as a ‘crowded and muddled conglomeration’ whilst Booth and Taylor are even more damning. They comment in the introduction to ‘Cambridge New Architecture’ that Physics, Mathematics, Metallurgy and Zoology still occupy the extraordinary slums of the New Museums Site’ and add further, in their commentary on the emerging Arup designs: ‘Those of us who still adhere to that passionate discovery of English architectural philosophers a century ago, that the quality of buildings is closely related to the quality of thought and organisation, even of morality, of the society which produces them, are floored completely by the dark and sordid muddle which is the physical expression of Thomson, Rutherford and Cockcroft…’

4.02 Section 2 of this report has shown how the rather piecemeal way in which the interior of the site developed with buildings erected as needs and budgets were identified rather than to conform to any particular plan. This statement does not apply to the exterior however, where the street frontages of buildings contribute hugely to the townscape character of Free School Lane and Pembroke / Downing Street (in which the Corn Exchange Street frontage of Prior’s Zoology Building is pre-eminent).

4.03 Clearly the Arup buildings were intended to bring a planned structure to the site and to integrate this into the town by continuing the raised podium across Corn Exchange Street towards the then Lion Yard. This was never realised however and what was built currently now simply adds to the uncoordinated amalgamation of structures.

4.04 Several buildings have been modified at the rear where all the necessary plant, flues, ducting and fire escapes have been added to retain the pristine nature of the frontages. Whilst in many ways this is laudable, it does little to raise the quality of the experience once the site is entered.

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4.05 Some of the buildings within the site are rather utilitarian in themselves (whilst some such as the Mond Building are architectural gems). In many respects, however, the problem lies not with the buildings themselves, but how they relate to each other. The quality of the spaces is extremely poor and this is exacerbated by the fact that many buildings have been extended leaving little intervening space.

4.06 What space does remain is dominated by car parking, or at least hard surfaces to allow for vehicles to access the site. The need for such access has often been at the expense of the pedestrian and cyclist experience. The vast majority of people still enter the site through the archway off Pembroke Street – the only vehicular access, yet there are potentially far more attractive pedestrian routes including through the original entrance in the Cavendish Laboratories and another early entrance through the Heycock Wing described in Section 3. The other access to the site through Parson’s Court next to the Corn Exchange is potentially convenient but constrained, unattractive and seemingly only used by those ‘in-the-know’.

Potential enhancements through masterplan

4.07 Substantial opportunities exist to enhance the site by giving key buildings a proper setting, providing landscaped milling and congregation spaces especially adjacent to the Zoology Museum, reducing the number of vehicles on the site and making it more accessible especially for pedestrians, cyclists and those with disabilities. All of this would make the site far more permeable and legible and better reveal the heritage significance of the site, substantially enhancing its contribution to the character and appearance of the conservation area.

Contribution to the Cambridge Historic Core Conservation Area

Pembroke / Downing Streets

4.08 The buildings of the New Museums Site make a very significant contribution to the townscape of these streets complementing the buildings of the Downing Site and Pembroke College on the south side of the road. The buildings are imposing and monumental and whilst they do create something of a ‘canyon’ this is a characteristic feature of the street.

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4.09 The buildings are attractive and well-maintained and the cleaning of some buildings in recent years has made the street less gloomy. The various roof top additions, in particular the blocky stone faced addition to the Old Metallurgy Building, are unattractive in some views. The scale of the buildings is typical of the streets, although a cluster of modest ‘town’ properties are found west of Free School Lane. The massing of the New Museums Site reduces at this point with the more domestically scaled west end of the Heycock Wing.

4.10 There is no landscaping, nor are there any significant opportunities for any – this urban character is a distinctive element of the street’s townscape.


4.11 The key enhancement which could be brought about would be considering how to better manage or relieve the extremely congested (and possibly dangerous at peak times) Pembroke Street archway entrance. Remodelling or removal of the roof top addition to the Old Metallurgy Building should also be considered.

Free School Lane

4.12 The buildings along Free School Lane all make a very positive contribution to the townscape of the street and all are listed. The buildings are all set against the footpath edge and the street has an intimate character, although most of the buildings along the street are in University/College use and their scale and form reflects this. However, the scale and form returns to a more domestic scale at either end of the street where the University/College buildings meet the ‘town’.

4.13 In common with Pembroke/Downing Streets, there is little opportunity for landscaping. The only exception is the triangle of land outside the Rayleigh Wing which contains shrubs and grass behind railings and is reputedly the last remnant of the original Botanic Garden. There are also the small set-backs behind railings by Old Physical Chemistry. The shrubs within the small yard behind the Porter’s Lodge of the Heycock Wing provide Free School Lane with some ‘borrowed’ greenery in much the same way as the trees in the Corpus Christi College grounds do on the other side of the road.

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4.14 The original site entrance through the Cavendish Laboratory building is very attractive with setts and cobbles and a character very reminiscent of the Cambridge College Gatehouses.


4.15 There is perhaps scope to enhance the soft landscaping within the small garden area to the rear of the Porter’s Lodge to better ‘green’ this side of the lane.

Wheeler Street / Bene’t Street (including Parson’s Court)

4.16 None of the buildings of the New Museums Site front these streets which, as a result have a finer grain and more modest scale, reflective of their ‘town’ character, in contrast to the larger scale ‘gown’ development within the Site. However, there is an entrance to the Arts School to the west of the modern extension to Mortlock’s former bank, now the CAU restaurant, and another through Parson’s Court. The New Museums Site therefore has a limited contribution to the street.

4.17 The Arts School ‘courtyard’ has a combination of low brick walls and piers and iron gates and railings. There is a small amount of shrub planting but views are dominated by the rear elevations of the Free School Lane properties, the modern CAU restaurant and the rather blank rear wing of the Old Cavendish Laboratory building.

4.18 It is currently possible to enter the site via Parson’s Court to the south of No.4 Parson’s Court (part of the Site) but this is certainly not obvious from Wheeler Street from where the Site is effectively hidden. Parson’s Court is used as the loading dock for the Corn Exchange and consequently it can be extremely congested. This means that it is probably unrealistic for this route into the site to be significantly improved for increased pedestrian / cycle users.


4.19 The treatment of Bene’t Yard (as the Arts School courtyard is informally know), could be improved by high quality and appropriate hard and soft landscaping, which would be particularly beneficial to the setting of the Grade II listed Arts School. There is also an opportunity to enliven

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this space by the creation of more active elevations to the Grade II listed Cavendish Laboratory buildings.

4.20 Although the Parson’s Court route into the site is likely to remain informal, its surface treatment offers scope for some minor enhancement.

Corn Exchange Street

4.21 Corn Exchange Street has the feel of a service street with no building actively facing it. It is dominated by heavy vehicle usage, especially into the Grand Arcade car park, and has no real level pedestrian route along it. Partly this is a consequence of the original plans to link the New Museums Site and Lion Yard at podium level bridging the street.

4.22 The David Attenborough Building has a triangular tarmac loading bay outside the north end and there is a similar loading bay outside the 1930s extension to the Zoology Building. The storage of bins in these ‘lay-bys’ does nothing to dispel the functional appearance of the street, although this is being addressed, at least in part, by the redevelopment of the David Attenborough Building (formerly the Arup Building) which will enhance the public realm by landscaping the loading bay and providing a public access point up to the podium level of the building.

4.23 The large scale development on the New Museums Site is echoed on the ‘town’ side of the street with the Grand Arcade development.


4.24 Even though the east side of the street has been redeveloped, there is still a first floor walkway along it and potentially the scope to link to the New Museums Site remains.

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The Interior of the Site

Routes

4.21 The routes through the site are rather tortuous and certainly more than a little disorientating for the casual visitor. This is largely because so many of the buildings are ‘land-locked’ within the site and of those that do front the public streets very few can be directly accessed from these public highways. The poor permeability of the site currently limits the level of public interaction.

4.22 From the public streets, there are only three entrances into the site – two along Pembroke Street and one in Free School Lane – although there is another less obvious entrance through Parson’s Court off Wheeler Street. Different entrances are used by those in the know, depending on which buildings they wish to visit, but for the most part only the central Pembroke Street entrance is used because it provides the most direct access to the majority of the site and is the only vehicular entrance into the site.

4.23 The route through the central arched entrance from Pembroke Street leads past the car park attendant’s hut which sits immediately inside the site against the entrance to the Shell Building and then the space opens up into the ‘Zoology courtyard’. Looking northwards, the Shell Building rises to the left whilst the David Attenborough Building looms to the front with the blank rendered east flank of the Cockcroft facing. This area is shared between pedestrians, cyclists and vehicles.

4.24 At the northern end of the Shell Building, this vehicular route splits – one arm continues northwards and the other turns west with the view terminated by the rear of the Phoenix Building and its high-level bridge link to the Balfour Building. This west arm runs alongside the Cockcroft Building and leads to the Goldsmiths Laboratory and Old Metallurgy. Upon reaching the Phoenix Building, the route splits again, this time northwest and south.

4.25 The route south is used by pedestrians and cyclists only and leads to what appears to be a dead-end, past the west elevation of Old Metallurgy, and the modern extension to Old Physical Chemistry. However, an archway through the corner of Old Physical Chemistry gives access to a tiny triangular courtyard behind the Heycock Wing and then to the original Porter’s Lodge and out to Pembroke Street near the corner of Free School Lane.

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4.26 Returning to the rear of the Phoenix Building, a narrow pedestrian route dog-legs between this building and the Mond Building, emerging at the rear of the Social Anthropology Wing. The route continues north between the Mond Building and the rear of the Old Cavendish with the rear (east) wing of the original Cavendish Laboratory terminating the view. The route remains pedestrianised until past the north end of the Mond Building where vehicles can access the buildings again.

4.27 An archway through the Old Cavendish Laboratory provides the third ‘public’ entrance into the site and the view is terminated by the Mond Building Annexe and parked cars with the north end of the Austin Wing looming above. The route around the site continues east along the rear (east) wing of the Old Cavendish Laboratory and through the north end of the Austin Building. This emerges in the ‘courtyard’ formed by the David Attenborough Building, the Austin Building, the Cockcroft Building and the Examinations Schools and completes the circular route around the interior of the site. Looking north into this space from the end of the Cockcroft Building, the view is terminated by the bottom of the west tower of the David Attenborough Building.

4.28 Behind this tower a narrow pedestrian route provides access through an arched opening in a brick wall and alongside the Examinations Schools to Parson’s Court and out into the town. Another more circuitous route, and certainly not a public one, is that through the Arts School ‘courtyard’ off Bene’t Street. This route leads through the Arts School, through a ground floor doorway into the Examinations Schools and out into the ‘courtyard’ which the Examinations Schools encloses to the north.

Potential opportunities for enhancement through masterplan

4.29 Opportunities to reduce the number of vehicles entering the site through the Pembroke Street archway and giving pedestrians and cyclists better alternative access points (including the enhancement of existing accesses) should be considered. Potential new access points are limited, but a key potential new entrance to the site is through the Arts School ‘courtyard’ which would require an opening through the Cavendish Laboratory east wing.

4.30 The removal or remodelling of the extended and altered rear of the Phoenix Building, together with potential alterations to the rear of the Mond Building, offers scope to remove the ‘bottleneck’ between the two buildings and improve permeability in this area of the NMS.

4.31 The removal of the north end of the Austin Building adjacent to the Grade II listed Arts School would enable a better feeling of space and permeability, with consequential benefits to the setting of the listed building.

Spaces

4.32 The only real area of landscaping sits behind the Zoology Building where a raised area of lawn helps mediate the level changes between true ground and the podium level of the David Attenborough Building. This area is being redeveloped currently as part of the remodelling of the former Arup Building and will accommodate a glass foyer extension to the Zoology Museum and new landscaping.

4.33 At the raised podium level within the David Attenborough Building, the public realm here was a very ‘hard’ space due to the building design and paving materials and lack of any soft landscaping. The podium lacked character and was partly used for cycle parking. The expansive podium spaces which gave views onto Corn Exchange Street, had the feeling, not surprisingly

68


as the link to Lion Yard never materialised, that they were going nowhere. The podium level is to be better integrated and used as part of the refurbishment of the former Arup Building with new uses including a café installed on this level and parts of it glazed in with planters providing soft landscaping.

4.34 The main entrance into the site from Pembroke Street, as has already been noted, is narrow and congested with an access barrier at the north end. The space, like most of those on the site, is tarmac-surfaced and with a combination of yellow hatching to prevent vehicles parking and marked out parking bays.

4.35 This is true of virtually all the spaces between buildings on the site with the main areas of car parking being between the MRC Hut and the David Attenborough Building and in the Arts School Courtyard. Other bays are squeezed beside buildings such as the Mond Building, the East Wing of the Cavendish Laboratory, the rear of Old Metallurgy, around the Shell Building and to the rear of Old Physical Chemistry.

4.36 Formal cycle shelters are located between the MRC Hut and the Austin Wing, beside the rear wing of Old Metallurgy and in the Arts School courtyard. Informal cycle parking, as in much of central Cambridge, occurs generally where there are railings, down-pipes or convenient items of street furniture.

4.37 The second entrance into the site from Pembroke Street, through the original Porter’s Lodge, in the Heycock Wing gives access to tiny triangular space between the Heycock Wing and

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Old Physical Chemistry. The sense of enclosure is heightened by the recent glass bridge that links Old Physical Chemistry and the Heycock Wing at first floor level and spans the small space which has, in common with the other spaces within the site, a simple tarmac surface.

4.38 The one tree on the site survives in the space to the rear of the Phoenix Building, devoid of any meaningful context.

4.39 The refurbishment of the former Arup Building (now the David Attenborough Building) will provide significant areas of green roofs and planting/landscaping at higher levels. Previously, within the roof area of the building were three external courtyards which provided welcome external amenity space. The southernmost one in particular was quite well used and was partially landscaped.


4.40 Removal of buildings or parts of buildings or indeed remodelling of them, should be considered in the vicinity of the Pembroke Street archway. The 1958 Shell Building particularly enhances the austerity of the site and plays its part in adding congestion to the entrance. The demolition of this wing would enhance the openness of the site and provide the opportunity for much needed landscaping. The Goldsmiths Laboratory might also be removed as part of this exercise.

4.41 The Cockcroft Building is not of great significance and its removal or at least remodelling would provide the redeveloped David Attenborough Building with some breathing space. This would have consequent benefits in terms of potential landscape improvements and accessibility and provide the opportunity to further mitigate the separation of the David Attenborough Building podium level from the main ground level of the site.

4.42 The removal of the MRC hut would similarly offer scope for landscape improvements and the creation of a much needed high quality open space within the site.

4.43 The spaces to the rear of the Cavendish Laboratory between it and the Mond Laboratory are tight and should be cleared of all unnecessary features and car parking. The potential removal

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of the Mond Building Annexe would significantly open up this space, providing the listed buildings with a better setting and provide another welcoming high quality arrival space into the Site.

4.44 The appropriate use of public art and interpretation material could significantly aid legibility and better reveal the significance of the site. The ‘significance’ of any buildings removed as part of any works on the site (including important names or discoveries) could also be retained through appropriate interpretation and perhaps the naming of public spaces.

(Roof)

New Museums Site

Negative view

Negative frontage

Positive frontage

City Landmark building

Negative floorscape Tree

Place of worshipDomestically scaled traditional buildings (2-3.5 stories approx.)

C20 University buildings

C20 Large scale commercial development

Traditional institutional scale buildings

Green space

Negative local feature

Positive local feature

Positive view

Barrier to movement

KEY

PW

PW

PW

Square

Fisher

Guildhall Place

Post

WHEELER STREET

PARSON'S COURT

PEMBROKE STREET

PEAS HILL

Posts

FREE SCHOO

L LANE

LB

Court

Master's Garden

PH LANE

ard's Passage

BENE'T STREET


DOWNING STREET

TENNIS COURT RO

AD

0 50

Guildhall

Corn Exchange

Corpus Christi

College

Hotel

The Downing Site

Pembroke College

sts

Tow

nsca

pe Q

ualit

y

71


5.0 REFERENCES

• BOOTH, P. & TAYLOR, N. (1970) Cambridge New Architecture, London: Leonard Hill Books

• BRYAN, P. (2008) Cambridge: The Shaping of the City, Cambridge: G. David, Bookseller

• CLARK, J. W. (1931) A Concise Guide to the Town and University of Cambridge, 10th

edition, Cambridge: Bowes & Bowes

• CROSBY, T. (1974) ‘New Museums Building, Cambridge’, The Architectural Review, Vol

CLV, n924.

• DEPARTMENT OF ARCHITECTURE AND PLANNING, CITY OF CAMBRIDGE. (1971)

Cambridge Townscape, An Analysis, Cambridge: Printing Section, City Treasurer’s

Department

• LEAKE, J. (2010) ‘Buildings: Old and Not-so-Old’, Cambridge Material Eyes, Issue 19

• McKEAN, C. (1982) Architectural Guide to Cambridge and East Anglia Since 1920,

London: RIBA Eastern Region

• MUTHESIUS, S. (2000) The Postwar University: Utopianist Campus and College,

London: Yale University Press

• PERKIN, G. (1981) ‘Commodity, Firmness and Harmony’, Concrete Quarterly, 129

• PEVSNER, N. & BRADLEY, S. (2014) Buildings of England: Cambridgeshire, London:

Yale University Press

• REEVE, F.A. (1976) The Cambridge that never was, Cambridge: The Oleander Press

• SHARPE, T. (1963) ‘Dreaming Spires and Teeming Towers: The Character of Cambridge’,

The Town Planning Review, Vol. XXXIII No.4

• WILLIS, R. & CLARK, J.W. (1988) The Architectural History of the University of

Cambridge, Vol. III. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press

• http://www.c20society.org.uk

• http://www.cambridgephysics.org

• http://www.hps.cam.ac.uk/whipple/aboutthemuseum/history

• http://www.royalacademy.org.uk

• http://www2.mrc-lmb.cam.ac.uk

APPENDIX 1

Braun Hogenberg map (1575)

William Smith (1588)

John Speed (1610)

Dewhurst and Nichols (1840)

Site Plan of New Museums Site with Denys Lasdun’s November 1962 proposals (from

‘Cambridge New Architecture’ (1970) Booth & Taylor)

Cambridge Townscape (1971)

Bra

un H

ogen

berg

(157

5)

Will

iam

Sm

ith (1

588)

John

Spe

ed (1

610)

Dew

hurs

t & N

icho

ls (1

840)

Pla

n of

New

Mus

eum

s S

ite w

ith D

enys

Las

dun’

s N

ovem

ber 1

962

prop

osal

s (fr

om ‘C

ambr

idge

New

Arc

hite

ctur

e’ (1

970)

Boo

th &

Tay

lor)

Cam

brid

ge T

owns

cape

(197

1)

APPENDIX 2

Statutory Guidance

STATUTORY GUIDANCE Planning Policy National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) The NPPF came into force in March 2012 (produced by DCLG) and forms the Government’s planning policy guidance for England. Chapter 12 provides guidance on ‘conserving and enhancing the historic environment’ and paragraphs 126 ‐141 of the NPPF should be applied where relevant, proportionate and necessary. These paragraphs state that heritage assets (which include listed buildings, conservation areas, locally listed buildings, Registered Parks and Gardens, etc.) should be conserved in a manner appropriate to their significance. Applicants are expected to describe the significance of any heritage assets (including any contribution made by their setting) affected by development proposals, with the level of detail proportionate to the assets’ importance. There is a presumption in favour of a designated asset’s conservation and substantial harm to or loss of a heritage asset should be exceptional and will generally be refused consent. Any proposed harm or loss will require clear and convincing justification including that substantial harm or loss is necessary to achieve substantial public benefits. For non‐designated heritage assets, a balanced judgement should weigh up the scale of the harm or loss and the significance of the heritage asset. Opportunities to enhance or better reveal the significance of heritage assets are encouraged and it is acknowledged that not all elements of conservation areas necessarily contribute to their significance. Development proposals that preserve elements of setting that make a positive contribution should be treated favourably. Cambridge Local Plan (2006) The 2006 Plan currently forms the Development Plan for Cambridge (alongside a number of other Plans which are not relevant to the New Museums Site). The heritage policies are: • Policy 4/10 Listed Buildings • Policy 4/11 Conservation Areas • Policy 4/12 Buildings of Local Interest Cambridge Local Plan 2014: Proposed Submission The new local plan, which is currently under examination, will replace all of the existing or ‘saved’ policies in the 2006 Plan upon adoption – planned for later 2015. Until adoption, the following heritage policies of the 2014 Plan will have limited weight: • Policy 61: Conservation and enhancement of Cambridge’s historic environment • Policy 63: Local heritage assets • Policy 64: Works to a heritage asset to address climate change

Guidance National Planning Policy Guidance On 6 March 2014 the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) launched this planning practice guidance web‐based resource. This cancelled a host of previous planning practice guidance documents when launched. Category ID: 18a contains the guidance relating to ‘Conserving and enhancing the historic environment’ which provides advice on how to interpret the corresponding policies of Chapter 12 of the NPPF. Together with the suite of English Heritage Good Practice Advice Notes (see below), this guidance replaces the previous Historic Environment Planning Practice Guide that was produced to support the previous PPS 5. English Heritage Historic Environment Good Practice Advice in Planning ‐ Note 3: The Setting of Heritage Assets This document provides guidance on managing change within the settings of heritage assets. It is clear that setting is not a heritage asset, nor a heritage designation in itself. Its importance lies in what it contributes to the significance of the heritage asset(s) in question and this depends on a wide range of elements which may make a positive or negative contribution to the asset or be neutral. The contribution made by setting to an asset’s significance can also be negligible or it may be great. Understanding Place: Historic Area Assessments in a Planning and Development Context (2010) This guidance sets out what to consider when undertaking historic area assessments which should develop an understanding of the character of an area and its capacity for change. Such assessments consider both buildings and other features that provide their setting such as street and road patterns, or boundary hedges and walls. They look at a place or area as a whole and are undertaken at three levels of detail depending upon the size, complexity and integrity of the historic environment, and the timescale for the project. Conservation Principles Policies and Guidance: for the Sustainable Management of the Historic Environment (April 2008) This document was intended mainly to guide English Heritage staff on best practice to strengthen the credibility and consistency of decisions taken and advice given by them. It sets out six high‐level principles which provide a framework for the sustainable management of the historic environment. It also sets out a method for describing the range of heritage values that can be ascribed to places, grouping these values into four categories: evidential, historic, aesthetic and communal. These values have largely been carried through into subsequent planning policy, but have been rebadged as heritage interests and the communal aspect has largely disappeared. Cambridge Historic Core Conservation Area Appraisal (June 2006) This character appraisal assesses the essential townscape characteristics of the central core of Cambridge and replaced the earlier 1971 document ‘Cambridge Townscape’. It summarises the issues that affect the core area, how they impact upon the essential characteristics and how they might best be managed. The document first defines the broad characteristics of the core area and then looks in detail at the characteristics of every street and space within this area. Each street is given a ‘significance value’ which is intended to provide a guide to the sensitivity of the street to change.

The New Museums Site Historic Environment Analysis

Documents

Transcript of The New Museums Site Historic Environment Analysis