William Stone Building from the Scholars' Garden

More Buildings: William Stone II Cosin Court St Peter's Terrace The Little Rose Trumpington Street Fitzwilliam Street Fitzwilliam House Next Main Stop: College Rooms

A munificent bequest from William Stone (1857-1958), a former scholar, led the college to commission a large new residential building from the architects Sir Leslie Martin and Colin St John Wilson. It provided accommodation for eight Fellows and twenty-four undergraduates at a cost of £100,000. Erected in 1963-4, it is an undeniably arresting composition which was much admired and photographed in the 1960s and 70s by architectural students, especially from Japan. In the heady days of the 1960s it was hailed by Nicholas Taylor and Philip Booth as a building which 'suggests a new independence and freedom of student life' (Cambridge New Architecture, 1964). Certainly, it is interesting historically as a belated and solitary example in Cambridge of the impact of Corbusier's fantasies of the 1920s of high-rise living for modern man. It commands fine views but screens had subsequently to be inserted in the side windows to prevent occupants from being able to see into other people's rooms.

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