Title: Modern Architecture in an Oxford College
Author: Tyack, Geoffrey
Published by: OUP
Year: 2005
Date reviewed: 08.09
ISBN: 978-0-19-927162-7

One of the things I like about Oxford – and I wonder how many of the tourists on the heritage trail notice this – is that dotted among the old buildings there are now many modern ones. Some are easily visible, like the new additions in the science area, the Law Faculty and Library, and new colleges like St. Catherine’s. Others are tucked away within the colleges themselves and have to be sought out.

This book deals with just one college, St John’s, which in Oxford has (or had) the reputation of being wealthy but dull. To the college’s credit, in the second half of the 20th century they have used some of their wealth to commission several new buildings: Dolphin Quad (on the site of an old pub), the Beehive building, the Thomas White building, and most recently (and in my uninformed view most successfully) the Garden Quad.

Tyack, an architectural historian, is an alumnus of the college and has dug into its archives to come up with an account not only of the buildings themselves but also the internal politicking that went on before and during the commissioning of the various works. There are plenty of illustrations.

This book was on the preliminary reading list for a course I have registered for about 20th century architecture in Oxford, so no doubt there will be more on architectural topics to follow.