2012 Annual Report - Jesus College - University of Cambridge

14 CHAPEL COURT I Jesus College Annual Report 2012
Preliminary sketch of the angel sculpture attributed to Eric Gill
the southernmost staircases (Chapel Court 6 and 7) with pinkish bricks rescued from a
ruined manor house in Suffolk, and adapting his plan to return to a regular three-sided
court facing north. In the eastern range he placed a new gateway, directly on the axis of the
chapel, above which is a carving by Eric Gill, one of the most distinguished sculptors and
typographers of the early twentieth century. As Arthur Gray’s article in the Cambridge
Review of 1931 put it: “The essential character of Mr Horder’s work is its grave nobility
contrasting with the florid artifices and cheap materials of Victorian builders. Towers,
terricles and ineffective heraldic ornament have no part in it.” Heating was by open fires,
there was hot water to basins in every bedroom, and bathrooms were created in the
basement. Though the college may have approved Morley Horder’s aesthetic judgement,
people complained of sound transmission from staircase to room, and the plain brick
facings to the stairs cannot have helped.
The architects appointed to design the current repairs and improvements, Berman
Guedes Stretton, had undertaken similar work in Oxford, most notably at Keble College,
upgrading the buildings of its High Victorian architect William Butterfield. Here at Jesus
College they are required not only to improve the buildings to the environmental
standards we expect in the twenty-first century, but to deal sensitively with the “wholly
dull” Carpenter building and the “grave nobility” of Morley Horder’s extension.
Significant repairs, as one might expect, were necessary to roofs, windows, stonework
and gutters. The planning in both buildings was tortuous in some instances, and
inserting new shower rooms to nearly every room means considerable re-fashioning of
the internal layouts. Efficiencies must not be achieved at the expense of the loss of
character – certain spaces, such as ‘Boatie Tower’, may have an iconic significance that
should be respected. Heat losses have to be minimised to meet statutory regulations,
which means improved airtightness as well as the addition of insulation. But at the same
time, skirtings, architraves and other mouldings need to be protected and retained,