Keele University

Posted on by modernmoocher

Keele University occupies a six hundred and twenty acre rural campus close to the village of Keele and comprises extensive woodlands, small lakes and Keele Hall in the historic Staffordshire Potteries heartland.

The estate was originally given by King Henry II of England to the Knights Templars, AD 1180. When the Templars were condemned and dissolved by the Council of Vienne in the time of Pope Clement V AD 1311, their possessions were annexed by the Knights Hospitallers until their dissolution by Henry VIII.

The estate was purchased from the Crown by the Sneyd family in 1540 and remained in their property until acquisition by the Stoke-on-Trent Corporation in 1948.

The first Keele Hall was built in 1580 and it was rebuilt in 1860. The Hall is a major conference, wedding and banqueting venue and has Grade II listing from English Heritage for its architectural importance.

The University itself was founded as the University College of North Staffordshire in 1949 and received its Charter as the University of Keele in 1962.

By 1969 Keele University was being described as “the most original innovation in British university education in the 20th century”.

Students Union 1961-62 Stillman & Eastwick-Field enclosed and extended 1975.

RIBApix Henk Snoek 1963

I fear that time has not been kind to this once fresh faced youngster.

Library 1961 Sir Howard Robertson.

Flame 1995 Diana Whelan

Walter Moberly Hall 1954 JA Pickavance with honorary architect JR Piggott Stoke on Trent City Architect.

Walter Moberly was a British academic who, as Chairman of the University Grants Committee, played a significant role in the creation of Keele University.

It was an essential feature of the Keele experiment for the entire student body in the Foundation Year to gather here for lectures. It was also vital to the social and cultural activities of the community of scholars, being used for lectures, plays, debates, concerts and other events requiring a large auditorium.

Dorothy Hodgkin

Dorothy Mary Hodgkin OM FRS was a British chemist, credited with the development of protein crystallography. She advanced the technique of X-ray crystallography, a method used to determine the three-dimensional structures of biomolecules.

Hornbeam Building an extension of 2015.

Huxley

Central Science Laboratories 2018-19 Halliday Meecham Architects

Jack Ashley Building

Jack Ashley was MP for Stoke-on-Trent South for 26 years, from 1966 to 1992. In December 1967, Ashley lost his hearing as a result of complications from a routine operation to correct a perforated eardrum. He was persuaded to retain his seat in the House of Commons, electing instead to take a crash course in lip reading. He thus became the first totally deaf MP. Ashley was a lifelong campaigner for the disabled, especially the deaf and blind. He led high profile campaigns, including the campaign for improved compensation for victims of thalidomide, vaccine damage and damage done by the arthritis drug, Opren. In 1986, he and his wife founded the charity Defeating Deafness.

Following his retirement from Parliament in 1992, Ashley was made Baron Ashley of Stoke.

The Huts

British troops arrived at Keele Hall during 1940 and an army base was built to house troops evacuated from Dunkirk. 

The Huts provided memorable and very comfortable homes for Keele students from the 1950s right into the 1970s

Keele History

Tawney Building 1954 JA Pickavance

Richard Henry Tawney was an economic historian, social critic and proponent of adult education, whose writings had a profound influence on Lord Lindsay, the founder of Keele University.

This and the Walter Moberly Building were originally planned as the first two buildings in a quadrangle, emulating the typical design of many American liberal arts colleges. Lindsay drew much of his inspiration for Keele and his educational philosophy from this American model of higher education which was characterised as the search for truth in the company of friends”.

Chancellor’s Building 1962-66 Shepheard Epstein & Hunter extended 1977.

The tour of the academic buildings ends at The Chapel 1964-65 George Pace.

Onwards to the student accommodation – Horwood Hall 1961-64

The majority of housing was two to four storeys in height with the exception of this now empty point block.

The site includes this butterfly roofed Warden’s House.

Lindsay Hall 1961-64

This winged block has more of the interwar styling than the Sixties.

There is a whole group of low rise blocks which are currently tinned-up.

At the centre of the site The Hexagon –

Open 24/7 with WiFi, TVs and vending machines, and all students can use the facility – you don’t need to live in halls.

Adjacent are the Lindsay Studios.

Special mention is reserved for the Crime Scene House.

Having a crime scene house allows us to provide context to our teaching and gives you experience in a typical environment encountered by a forensic scientist.

The Innovation Centres were built in 2000-4 by Hulme Wright & Partners.

IC1

IC2

IC3

IC4

Denise Coates Foundation Building 2018-19 BDP – principal architect Sue Emms

IC5

Caudwell Children 2018-19 James Pass for C4 Projects.

The award-winning Caudwell International Children’s Centre is the UK’s first purpose-built centre for multi-disciplinary therapy for childhood disability and research of neurodevelopmental conditions including autism.

Harper and Keele Veterinary School 2020-21 Jefferson Sheard.

Launched in 2020, the Harper and Keele Veterinary School is committed to equipping a new generation of vets with the skills and tools to thrive as professionals and contribute to animal, human, and planetary health. Drawing on the combined expertise and resources of Harper Adams University and Keele University, together with a vibrant network of veterinary practice partners, students benefit from practical experience and clinical skills from the outset.

IC7 designed by HLM Architects, working with Tetra-Tech, Poole Dick, Currie & Brown and William Bailey, and constructed by Bowmer and Kirkland

Innovation Centre 7 brings together small and medium sized digital enterprises, experienced academics and state-of-the-art digital infrastructure all under one roof, providing tenants with unique access to the facilities, industry links and burgeoning student talent pool of future employees that will lead to the competitive advantages needed to innovate, expand and succeed in emerging digital markets.

William Mitchell Liverpool

Posted on by modernmoocher

Walking the streets of Liverpool?

Time on your hands wondering what to do?

Take a look at the work of William Mitchell!

Sculptor and designer, born in London 1925, where he continued to live. Studied at Southern College of Art in Portsmouth, at Royal College of Art and at British School in Rome; was an Abbey Award-winner. Went on to lecture widely and was a member of the design advisory board, Hammersmith College of Art and Trent Polytechnic. Also did work for Concrete Society and completed a frieze for Swiss Cottage Library.

artuk.org

First stop is 29 Hope street – where we have been before – william-mitchell-liverpool.

Federation House – 1965-66 Gilling Dodd & Partners

Originally home to the National Federation of Building Employees Investments.

Now how in part to The Shandon Bells – named for the chimes of St. Anne’s Church in Cork.

The church is noted for its eight bells, immortalised in the song The Bells of Shandon by Francis Sylvester Mahony. The largest weighs a little over one and a half tons and was originally cast by Abel Rudhall of Gloucester.

They first rang on 7 December 1752.

Church of_St_Anne Shandon

Curiously for an Irish themed pseudo-pub the exterior fascia is modelled on the Design Research Unit’s Watneys identity.

Here are some interiors of the then Coffee Moose from 2022

Next we’re off to liverpool-metropolitan-cathedral-of-christ-the-king.

The cathedral’s architect, Frederick Gibberd, was the winner of a worldwide design competition.

Construction began in 1962 and was completed in 1967.

William Mitchell designed the concrete relief below the bell, two front and two side doors.

Before the fire.

A woman has been charged with arson following a fire at a cathedral.

The blaze damaged doors and the gallery at Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral on Mount Pleasant in the early hours of 29 May 2022.

A 35-year-old woman was charged with arson and possession of a controlled drug and remanded in custody, Merseyside Police said. 

The blaze did not enter the main part of the cathedral but caused smoke damage inside the building. 

There were no injuries in the fire.

BBC

Rendall Building – University of Liverpool

Posted on by modernmoocher

Rendall Building by Bryan & Norman Westwood, Piet & Partners 1964-6

Named after Gerald Henry Rendall who was an English educator and college administrator.

He was principal of University College Liverpool.

We have been here before at liverpool-university, exploring the space betwixt and between the two cathedrals.

On this occasion, I wish to draw attention to this relatively small but perfectly formed building – #432 on your maps.

Westwood, Piet & Partners were well-known architects during the post-war period in Britain and built a body of varied work including army barracks, retail and theatre design. An example of their work is the Congress Theatre in Eastbourne – Grade II* listed.

Photo Theolimeister

Originally built to accommodate the arts library and lecture rooms on the south campus as the University grew to accommodate larger numbers of students.

The current use as lecture and seminar rooms maintains the building’s use as a key learning space on campus.

Located in an area of the southern campus where Westwood, Piet & Partners designed four blocks resulting in a group which Pevsner described as the

Most coherent and satisfying part of the precinct. The massing and materiality of the external is complementary and respectful to the surrounding Georgian buildings.

Click to access University,of,Liverpool_Campus,Built,Heritage.pdf

Sculptural concrete panels above a brick base.

Between the concrete is ‘dalle de verre’ stained glass by Gillian Rees-Thomas.

she was also responsible for the side chapel windows at St Mark’s Broomhill Sheffield.

The courtyard contains a sculpture by Mitzi Solomon Cunliffe – The Quickening previously located behind the School of Architecture.

Somebody at the University of Liverpool saw Mitzi’s work at the Festival of Britain and took note. She was immediately commissioned to create three items for the University: a public sculpture to go in the courtyard of the School of Civic Design’s new building, a decorative sculpture for the inside the building and the handles for its front-door.

The public sculpture, is in the form of a hand gently holding a dove. It stood in its original position for sixty-nine years until sent away for conservation and then relocated across campus in 2020, to outside the Rendall Building.

The other sculpture that Mitzi created for the building is easily the spikiest thing in our art collection. ‘Loosestrife’ is a number of tentacle-like arms that intertwine and project outwards. For many it looks like an assemblage of golden deer antlers but it may be based on spires of the flower called loosestrife.

Currently on display in the Victoria Gallery & Museum

‘Loosestrife’ had been recorded on its arrival as being made of bronze and had turned completely black over the years, probably because it was hung in an area where students smoked back in the day. When it was removed from the School of Civic Design building in 2018 and sent for cleaning, it was revealed to actually be made of brass. It is very heavy and takes four technicians with lifting gear to hang it for display.

mitzi-cunliffe-behind-the-mask

Mitzi was also responsible for the door handles across the way at the School of Civic Design.

Mount Pleasant Car Park – Liverpool

Posted on by modernmoocher

38 Mount Pleasant Liverpool L3 5TB

Excellent price – max £4 for whole day. Awkward to exit on foot, it needs more signage, but worth a bit of faffing around for the very reasonable cost. Really easy to pay by phone, although it costs an extra 20p to do this. As other have said, it closes at 8pm, but great for daytime adventures!

2017

Open 24 hours, no lifts but cheap. Always managed to find a space.

2023

Parkopedia

Crosville buses DVG279 and ENL826 head out of Liverpool past the multi-storey car park and AUEW offices in Mount Pleasant.

One of Liverpool’s traditional “Freddie Boswell” street sweepers is going down the hill with his dustcart.

Photo 1985 Chris Palmer

On my way somewhere else, took a left off Lime Street to walk around and about this monumental concrete car park.

I was on my way to see Ed Ruscha amongst other things.

Volare Digital Camera

I think he would have admired the view.

No fancy cladding and a limited pedestrian access, should you happen to be sans auto.

Attached to the car park is the 051 Complex – made for the Liverpool dialling code.

Club 051, ofiveone, The 05’…

Whatever you wish to call it, this iconic venue has touched the hearts of literally hundreds of thousands of clubbers spanning its illustrious history. Those infamous stairs down to the dance floor are truly part of clubbing folklore for those who have walked them, and now because of a team of people who dared to dream, you can once again enjoy the spine chilling ofiveone experience! 

Because dreams can come true 

Are You 051 Enough?

Green Pastures – Heaton Mersey

Posted on by modernmoocher

Further adventures in suburban housing.

Here is my first day’s findings in the West Heatons – followed by the next day in the West Heatons, the next and the West Heatons Cul de Sacs.

And my startling evocation of Suburbia.

1892-1914

For my part I cannot help bur recall the TV show Green Acres whenever I pass by Green Pastures.

Eva Gabor preferring the glamour of Manhattan.

To the rural life.

Culturally and stylistically, Green Pastures sits somewhere betwixt and between.

In reality the fictional life of Green Pastures became Mulberry Close, in the hit TV show Inside No. Nine

Vinette Robinson, Reece Shearsmith, Adrian Scarborough, Steve Pemberton and Dorothy Atkinson.

So much for the scriptwriters wild imaginings, what does the road look like?

A broad sweeping swathe of tarmac, with a range of 70s housing typologies – wall less gardens, where grass becomes easily impressed concrete, gravel and artfully paved car parks.

Asymmetric roof, bedroom balcony with optional infill, ever more pointless integrated garage, as the inflated automobile refuses to fit in.

The ubiquitous carriage lamp, B&Q Georgian front door and hanging basket, all head up the relentless quest to defy period integrity, in favour of a free market, free for all of undiluted historicism.

The future and the past and the houses are infinitely all extendable.

Butetown Cardiff – Housing

Posted on by modernmoocher

Butetown – or The Docks Tre-biwt is a district and community in the south of the city of Cardiff. It was originally a model housing estate built in the early 19th century by the 2nd Marquess of Bute, for whose title the area was named. 

Commonly known as Tiger Bay, this area became one of the UK’s first multiculturalcommunities with people from over fifty countries settled here by the outbreak of the First World War, working in the docks and allied industries. Some of the largest communities included the Somalis, Yemenis and Greeks, whose influence still lives on today.

A Greek Orthodox church still stands at the top of Bute Street.

Wikipedia

In 1906, work began on the present-day church, which also serves the Russian Orthodox community in south Wales. Designed by local architects, James and Morgan, it is located on a site provided by the 4th Marquess of Bute, to the west of Bute Street. The modestly-sized building is of Byzantine style with a domed nave and an apse at the east end. It retains the original dedication to St Nicholas. The interior is very ornate, with a lot of carved woodwork. The dome and upper walls have painted Biblical scenes in vivid colours with gold decoration.

David Webb, Glamorgan Archives Volunteer

Photo: Richard Swingler

Loudoun Square was originally built in the mid-1850s as upmarket homes for merchants, mariners, ship brokers and the like around a central park.

Photo 1962

In the 1960s, most of the original housing was demolished including the historic Loudoun Square, the original heart of Butetown. In its place was a typical 1960s housing estate of low-rise courts and alleys, and two high-rise blocks of flats.

Between 1960 and 1966 two sixteen-storey tower blocks, Loudoun House and Nelson House, were built on the centre of Loudoun Square

The demolition of the old buildings in Bute Street gets under way in 1963.

Peoples Collection Wales 1977

Photo Miles Glendinning 1988.

Surveybase have undertaken detailed scanning and modelling prior to the planned post Grenfell re-cladding.

The Loudoun Square regeneration project is a collaboration between Cardiff City Council, Cardiff Community Housing Association, Cardiff Local Health Board and Cardiff and Vale NHS Trust. The site is located between Cardiff City Centre and Cardiff Bay, and was previously occupied by an existing health centre and local shops, together with a vacant area of land.

The area has been regenerated with the creation of new modern facilities to serve the local community and include a new health centre, shops, affordable homes and community facilities.

Austin Smith Lord

Cardiff University

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Sir Martin Evans and Tower Buildings

Lead architect Ivan Dale Owen of Sir Percy Thomas & Partners also responsible for the site’s 1960 masterplanning.

He then spent over a year working for Walter Gropius’s practice, The Architects Collaborative, in Cambridge, Massachusetts.He returned to Britain, where he became a senior architect/planner with William Holford & Partners in London, where he worked on plans for the reconstruction of London after the war.

He returned to Wales with health problems and in 1958 was hired by Percy Thomas & Son as an associate in their Cardiff office. By 1964, Percy Thomas & Son had become Sir Percy Thomas & Partners and Owen had become a partner. He changed the philosophy of the practice, transforming it with a contemporary modernist style.

Wikipedia

1970 Internet Archive

We have previously encountered his work at both Aberystwyth, Bangor and Swansea Universities.

Rio Architects worked with Cardiff University designing visually attractive, innovative and cost-effective buildings. The Rio team are enthusiastic and dedicated, taking time to meet the client Departments at all stages of the project to ensure that an informed and good working relationship is developed and maintained the innovative design of the new podium development for the School of Bioscience incorporates hexagonal shaped glass panels was developed in conjunction with Solaglas.

Ian Lomer

Director of Estates Development, Cardiff University

Arts and Social Studies Library designed by Faulkner-Brown Hendy Watkinson Stonor 1976

RIBA pix Josephine Reid

Music Department 1971 Alex Gordon Partnership.

RIBA pix Stanley Travers

Three Obliques – Walk In is a 1968 sculpture by Barbara Hepworth. Three casts exist; two are in private collections and a third is displayed outside the Cardiff University School of Music.

It is cast in bronze on a monumental scale.

Wikipedia