Building the ivory tower: The social functions of late nineteenth century collegiate architecture

ABSTRACT Between 1870 and 1914 there was an unprecedented expansion of the ancient universities in England and an entirely new sector of higher education, the ‘Redbrick˚s universities, appeared in some provincial cities. This article examines the ways in which architects attempted to establish a new style of collegiate architecture which would suggest the antiquity and prestige of the universities, yet be appropriate for the demands of the late nineteenth century. The greatest architectural consensus occurred at Oxbridge, where architects were concerned to achieve a blend with existing college buildings. The variations of late Gothic architecture which they employed enabled them to reassert the pre-eminence of Oxbridge as well as its ecclesiastical associations during a period of swift change. Within the new civic universities some attempt was made to imitate these developments in an effort to assert prestige from the outset. But increasingly towards the end of the nineteenth century, architects experimen...