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London’s Unbuilt University

The Bloomsbury Scheme of Sir Edwin Landseer Lutyens

The University of London is a curious institution that these days no one really knows quite what to do with. At its zenith it was an imperial giant, validating the degrees of institutions from Gower Street to the very ends of the earth.

University College was founded — as “London University” — by the rationalist faction in 1826, prompting the supporters of the Anglican church to establish King’s College with royal approval in 1829.

Neither institution had the right to grant degrees, which led to the overarching University of London being created in 1836 with the power to grant degrees to the students of both colleges — and the further colleges and schools that would be founded later or come within its remit.

The University was run from the Imperial Institute in South Kensington but soon outgrew its quarters within that complex. The 1911 Royal Commission on University Education concluded that the University of London “should have for its headquarters permanent buildings appropriate in design to its dignity and importance, adequate in extent and specially constructed for its purpose”. But where?

Lord Haldane, the commission’s chairman, preferred Bloomsbury. University College was already there, as was the British Museum, and the Dukes of Bedford as the local landowners were happy to provide sufficient space to build a proper centre for the institution.

Charles Fitzroy Doll, the Duke’s own surveyor, designed a rather heavy classical scheme for academic buildings on the site north of the Museum but no progress was made before the Great War erupted.

In 1927, Sir Edwin Landseer Lutyens designed this fantastic and grandiose palace of learning for Bloomsbury, featuring Greek and Roman allusions as well as the influence of Lutyens’ own New Delhi. Other elements were incorporated from Lutyens’ abandoned plans for the University of Lucknow in India.

The main structure faces south onto a large piazza centred on a monumental obelisk. A broad ascent of steps, flanked by pavilions, leads up to a three-sided partly colonnaded square and to a presumed great hall inside.

Gently tapered twin campaniles flank the main temple and a porte-cochère is conveniently sited to welcome important visitors in the event of an outbreak of British weather.

At ground level, portals puncture the wings of the building allowing access to side courts and further wings beyond.

And beyond are more university buildings housing offices, lecture theatres, libraries, schools, and other facilities for the University or its component bodies stretching towards Gordon Square.

It’s a fun scheme overall and would, I think, have proved more iconic than the one by Charles Holden which eventually was chosen and which partly replicated the footprint of Lutyens’ main building.

Lutyens’ classical temple was replaced in Holden’s plans by the angular art-deco of the Senate House tower, built between 1932 and 1937.

The full extent of Holden’s project was never executed but of all the University of London’s buildings Senate House has beccome the most emblematic.

I think it’s a shame nothing became of Lutyens’ plan.

Images: RIBA Collections / source
Published at 11:55 am on Monday 9 December 2024. Categories: Architecture Tags: , , , .
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