A History of the Cambridge University Press, 1521-1921Roberts, S. C. (Sydney Castle)
History
A History of the Cambridge University Press, 1521-1921
Roberts, S. C. (Sydney Castle)
Cambridge University Press -- Bibliography; Cambridge University Press -- History
I have the Honor to remain, Sir,
Your most obedient humble Servant,
CAMDEN.
A favourable reply having, no doubt, been received from the
university, the Committee, at a meeting held at the Thatched
House Tavern on 18 June, 1824, unanimously passed the following
resolution:
That the surplus of the Fund, after defraying the Expense of the
Statue in Hanover-Square, as resolved at the former meeting on
the 11ᵗʰ instant, be applied to the Erection of a handsome and
appropriate Building at Cambridge, connected with the University
Press; such to bear the name of Mͬ Pitt. That the Committee be
desired to take the necessary steps for carrying into execution
this Resolution.
The university, on its part, appointed a Syndicate with authority
to expend the sum of £8000 in purchasing "houses or leases of
houses for the purpose of making exchanges with the Proprietors of
the houses between Silver Street and Mill Lane fronting towards
Trumpington Street."
After some years of delay the Committee approved the designs
submitted by Edmund Blore, who came to Cambridge with a letter
of introduction from the Marquess Camden in 1829. In this letter
the desire of the Committee for an imposing central chamber and
staircase is evident:
It is necessary to premise, that the Committee is desirous that
an handsome Room should be included in the Design, together with
a staircase leading to it, but that the Committee would be most
desirous any Accommodation could be given to the Press in the
Building to be erected which did not interfere with those parts
which they think should be ornamented.
Subsequently the university obtained the whole frontage between
Mill Lane and Silver Street--a larger site than that on which
Blore's original design had been based. Furthermore, the Pitt
statue in Hanover Square cost more than had been anticipated.
The Pitt Memorial Committee, therefore, undertook to erect the
main building in Trumpington Street at a cost of £9000, while the
university authorised an expenditure of not more than £2000 upon
the buildings (also designed by Blore) which form the north side of
the Press quadrangle.
The first stone of the Pitt Press building was laid by the Marquess
Camden on 18 October, 1831, and the work was completed in about
eighteen months, the total cost being £10,711 8_s_ 9_d_.
It consists of three floors with a square central tower containing
a lofty room designed for the Press Syndicate, but now used as the
Registry of the University. As to the architectural style of the
building, comment may best be confined to the repetition of Willis
and Clark's laconic description: "The style of the building is
Late Perpendicular." Some extracts from the account of the opening
on 28 April, 1833, abridged from _The Cambridge Chronicle_ (1 May,
1833), may also be given in conclusion:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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