University of Leeds - 1960s/1970s Campus
Architect
 Chamberlain, Powell & Bonn
Location
 1964 - 1976
Description
If you look at this cluster of buildings, on the southern end of the Leeds University Campus, you might be tempted to think that the brutalist concrete buildings configured in long spine-like ranges around courtyards, ....



..... linked by high-level bridges .....



..... and with a water feature, is reminiscent of London's Barbican, then you would be right. 



This part of the university's campus was built in the 1960s and 70s to designs by the architectural practice of Chamberlain, Powell and Bonn that was responsible for The Barbican.

The buildings are Grade II listed because they are regarded as, "... excellent examples of post-war architectural design as influenced by Le Corbusier, both in their structural design using reinforced concrete and in their clean and sweeping lines used on a grand scale; they form a distinctive group, linked stylistically as well as physically, with repeated structural patterns of concrete beams and continuous glazing."  They were also, "... highly influential as a model for other university campuses, in their genesis in an overall masterplan based on research into student movements and the use of different facilities."

The Twentieth Century Society points out that the Roger Stevens lecture hall (see below) was, "... a precursor for the Barbican Theatre and features a distinctive, ribbed surface treatment, (it) has been listed at II*. This high grade is rare for post-war buildings.





The sculpture on the building is by William Chattaway.  It was commissioned originally by The Midland Bank and was intended to be installed in its London Office in the 1950s. The sculptor entitled it Hermes but the patrons wanted to call it The Spirit of Enterprise.  Apparently, when the London building was sold in 1983 the sculpture was to be sold for scrap but Chattaway's long-time patron Stanley Burton stepped in and gave the university the money to purchase it.  The 4.5 ton sculpture was mounted on the building and renamed Hermes.

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