Clare Hall Cambridge

The architect for the new college of Clare Hall was Ralph Erskine. Born in London of Fabian Society parents, he was educated as a Quaker. He went to Sweden just before the war in 1939 and ran his practice from there for the rest of his life. His work was known for its human scale and socialist ethos, and he is probably best known in England for the Byker redevelpment in Newcastle and its famous Wall which he carried out between 1969 and 1982. Clare Hall, which he designed in 1966, was the modern building in Cambridge that impressed me most when I was there, the exquisite courtyards and the unexpected use of top lighting. Going back now it retains its calm sense of human proportion though the use of levels and the quality of the materials are less convincing with hindsight. The long raking roof was for him a sort of trademark, and it certainly works here.