Somerville College 1960s, Oxford, UK

Vaughan & Margery Fry

Architect	Philip Dowson of Arup Associates
Date Built	1958 - 1966
Location	Somerville College, Oxford - Clarendon Street
Description
This complex of two buildings is located on the Little Clarendon Street edge of the college.  Each building has a concrete frame that stands away from the walls and windows of the student rooms.  Both Vaughan and Fry-Nuffield sit above a podium that contains shops and an arcaded walkway on Little Clarendon Street. The image below shows Margery Fry - Elizabeth Nuffield House.  The college's websites says that, "... is the centre of the Somerville graduate community. It is named after Margery Fry, Principal of the College from 1927 to 1930, and Elizabeth Nuffield, wife of Lord Nuffield, who provided the funds which enabled the completion of the building. It is almost universally referred to as Margery Fry. The building contains 24 graduate rooms, the Middle Common Room, a TV room, kitchen and dining room, laundry and computer room. As for the architecture, well, it was the 1960’s, everyone was doing it!" Beside it is Vaughan House.  "Vaughan is named after Dame Janet Vaughan (Principal 1945-1967). It’s basically a scaled up version of Margery Fry, with scaled down rooms. Vaughan contains a large number of rooms mostly occupied by first-year undergraduates. The College Gym is located on the ground level. There are also two flats for the Junior Deans, a Junior Common Room (Vaughan JCR) , which is currently being expanded into a bar and social space, and Senior Common Room (Vaughan SCR)"

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- Wolfson -

Architect	Philip Dowson of Ove Arup Associates
Date Built	1967 (?)
Location	Somerville College, Oxford - Walton Street
Description
A four-storey, five bay residence building with a concrete frame with beams that protrude beyond the face of the building.  The college's website explains that, "... Each room has a large rectangular oriel.  The stair tower can be seen on the right of the image above.  It is faced with brick and has a raking top.  Wolfson is named after Sir Isaac Wolfson, who provided the funds for its construction. (Wolfson College is also named after him, for similar reasons). Wolfson contains students’ and Fellows’ rooms on three floors. On the ground level is newly renovated Flora Anderson Hall, used for bops, lectures and other events. Wolfson was built around the same time as Vaughan and Margery Fry, but is less obviously a product of its era. Wolfson is a grade-II listed building."

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