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THE MODERNIST MOMENT AT THE UNIVERSITY OF LEEDS, 1957–1977*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 March 2008

WILLIAM WHYTE
WILLIAM WHYTE*
Affiliation:
St John's College, Oxford
*
St John's College, Oxford, OX1 3JPwilliam.whyte@sjc.ox.ac.uk
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Abstract

Between 1957 and 1977 the University of Leeds engaged in a massive programme of rebuilding. Employing the architects Chamberlin, Powell, and Bon, Leeds transformed itself – becoming, in the words of one commentator, ‘Our first contemporary urban university’. Previously ignored by historians, this development in the history of the university illustrates a number of important themes. In the first place, it exemplifies the significance of architecture in defining higher education. Secondly – and more particularly – it shows how both academics and architects hoped to use Brutalist architecture to express the modernity of the University of Leeds. Thus the decision to employ avant-garde designers in the late 1950s and the resolution to dismiss them twenty years later both came from the same modernizing impulse. Thirdly, it shows how personal connection secured architectural patronage in this period. The Development Plan also highlights the way in which architects of the British modern movement used universities as laboratories in which to experiment with ideas about community and proper urban design. The modernist moment at Leeds, then, can be seen as representative of wider trends in British building, not least because it lasted for such a short period of time.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Historical Journal , Volume 51 , Issue 1 , March 2008 , pp. 169 - 193
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2008

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Footnotes

*

I am extremely grateful to the editor and anonymous referees of the Historical Journal, whose comments immeasurably improved this article. I must also thank Jane Garnett, Zoë Waxman, and Bill Whyte who kindly read earlier versions of it. With immense generosity Nicholas Ray and Elain Harwood allowed me to see their unpublished work on this area. For permission to cite unpublished material and to reproduce images I gratefully acknowledge the University of Leeds.

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94 ULA, Lodge Committee, Martin (12 Nov. 1958).

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102 ULA, Lodge Committee (12 Nov. 1958).

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107 Ray, interview with Woods (see n. 92).

108 See Sarah Williams Goldhagen, Louis Kahn's situated modernism (New Haven and London, 2001).

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114 Report to the Common Council of the Corporation of the City of London on residential development within the Barbican area (London, 1959). See also their Report of 1968.

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131 For the vice-chancellor's response to this see, Sir Charles Morris, ‘First reactions to the Robbins Report’, in Michael Shattock, ed., The creation of a university system (Oxford, 1996), pp. 109–16.

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135 For which, see Saint, Social architecture, ch. 6.

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138 See the furious complaint about it by P. G. Harris in ULA, B Buildings, Architects and Consultants, CPB complaints (1965–70), 16 Sept. 1960.

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140 Ibid., Martin (27 June 1958).

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144 ULA, B Buildings, Architects and Consultants, discussion (14 Nov. 1963).

145 Times, 26 May 1978.

146 ULA, B Buildings, Architects and Consultants, Chamberlin (21 Nov. 1963). Although compare it to ULA, Architects and Consultants: CPB, Commissions 1960–5, Chamberlin (16 Feb. 1962).

147 ULA, B Buildings, Architects and Consultants, 19 Dec. 1963.

148 ULA, B Buildings, Development Plan (General), vice-chancellor to Chamberlin (23 July 1963).

149 ULA, B Buildings, Architects and Consultants, Wilson (15 Oct. 1965).

150 ULA, B Architects and Consultants: CPB 1966–74 (12 July 1966).

151 ULA, B Buildings, Architects and Consultants, Chamberlin to Wilson (3 Nov. 1968).

152 Williamson, p. 321.

153 ULA, B Architects and Consultants: CPB 1966–74, Arthur Dower to vice-chancellor (31 Dec. 1968).

154 Maurice Beresford, Walks round red brick (Leeds, 1980), p. 7, and Williamson, pp. 320–3.

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158 John Delafons, Politics and preservation: a policy history of the built heritage, 1882–1996 (London, 1997).

159 Editorial, ‘Inspiring university plans’, Yorkshire Post, 21 May 1960.

160 Moultrie Kelsall, ‘A future for the past?’, Yorkshire Post, 14 July 1970.

161 Sir Roger Stevens, letter, Yorkshire Post, 16 July 1970.

162 Editorial, ‘Leeds University’, Architect and Builder, 29: 2 (1979), pp. 2–7; Editorial, ‘University of Leeds’, L'Archittetura: cronache e storia, 20 (1974), pp. 39–41.

163 ULA, B Buildings, Architects and Consultants, CPB complaints (1965–70).

164 For which see Alonso, Macarena Ibarra, ‘The conservation of historic buildings in the University of Leeds, 1955–1975’, Northern History, 40: 2 (2003), pp. 343–64CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

165 ULA, B Buildings, Development Plan (General), Wilson, 7 Aug. 1973.