Magdalene College
[47188]
Only the west range of Lutyens’s planned south-facing court at Magdalene College was built with drastically cut-back services, but it is enlivened by five distinct timber staircases whose differently carved newel tops were reputedly devised to help undergraduates find their rooms in the dark.
Please log in to view the full description, bibliography, and record details.
Description
Only the West range was built of a three-sided South facing court, and even this suffered from economic alterations, with bathrooms and heating arrangements reduced. The estimate for the court was £60,000 and only £1,500 was subscribed. The liveliest parts of the building are the five differently designed staircases with walls and ceilings of timber. Each newel post has an entirely different carved top; it is believed that Lutyens designed them in this way so that undergraduates could find their way back to their rooms in the dark. Lutyens’s ally at Magdelene was the bursar, T. Peel, then living at Middlefield, the house Lutyens had built near Cambridge in 1908. (Amery et al, 1981, Cat no.278)
Bibliography
Amery, C., Richardson, M. and Stamp, G., (1981) Lutyens, the Work of the English Architect Sir Edwin Lutyens (1869-1944): Hayward Gallery London, 18 November 1981 – 31 January 1982. London: Arts Council of Great Britain.
MORSHEAD, O.F., 1928. The Colleges of Oxford & Cambridge MAGDALENE COLLEGE CAMBRIDGE: 11.– THE PEPYS LIBRARY. Country Life (Archive : 1901 – 2005), 63(1624), pp. 300-308., Bradley S & Pevsner N (2014) Cambridgeshire. The Buildings of England. New Haven: Yale University Press.
Pevsner, N.(1970) Cambridgeshire. The Buildings of England. London: Penguin.
Butler, A., 1950. The architecture of Sir Edwin Lutyens: the Lutyens memorial series. Vol III: Town and Public Buildings: Memorials: The Metropolitan Cathedral, Liverpool, Country Life: London and Scribners: New York.
