Robinson College, Cambridge, listed

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Robinson College by Gillespie, Kidd & Coia – the Glasgow architects’ final major work, from 1977-81 – has just been recognised with Grade II* listing.

The building is clad with 1.4 million handmade bricks, and as with St Bride’s church, the brick is used in different ways to create a variety of colour and texture. The use of brick also links the building to older, Tudor structures nearby, such as St. John’s.  

Brick is also used in other modern buildings such as Hillingdon civic centre (1979).

The college includes a chapel, featuring stained glass by John Piper and Patrick Reyntiens , who also worked on Coventry Cathedral and Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral.

Robinson College, Cambridge, by Gillespie, Kidd & Coia

Britain’s Best Buildings (of the Past Century)

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A 2020 book where Matthew Freedman has asked 31 notable architects (including Norman Foster, Richard Rogers, and Ivan Harbour) and writers to give their picks of Britain’s best 75 buildings built since 1918.

“I hope the mix of working architects and thoughtful commentators expands the idea of what might constitute a ‘best building’ in interesting ways” he says.  The list is meant to reflect a range of geographical areas and styles, not just the ones with the most votes.

The Architectural Digest picks out a selection in their article including the Barbican complex, Tate Modern, Shard (all in London), but our St Bride’s church sneaks in at the bottom of the page! It has a similar concrete, monolithic aesthetic to the Barbican.

Barbican complex, London
Barbican complex, London

Modernist architecture as a “denial of craftsmanship, human scale and decoration”

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Dr. Joseph Shaw, fellow of the prestigious Royal Society of Arts and Oxford scholar of medieval philosophy, is quoted in relation to St. Peter’s Seminary in Cardross (grade A listed, but decaying and unlikely to be saved) as saying that Brutalism represents the “abandonment of the entire tradition of Christian architecture in favour of something which would have been more at home in the Soviet Union”, which I presume is meant as an insult and a criticism. Furthermore,

“Modernist architecture, with its denial of craftsmanship, human scale and decoration, is fundamentally at odds with the Catholic worldview. The Church does not have a single architectural style, embracing Byzantine, Classical and Gothic, but she does believe in raising the heart and mind to God, not crushing the spirit or exalting mechanical brutality and power.”

[https://www.churchmilitant.com/news/article/diocese-palms-off-brutalist-albatross]

A visit to the incredible East Kilbride church regarded as a British brutalist masterpiece

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From Glasgow Live – “[We] were left completely blown away by the sheer magnificence of the Gillespie, Kidd & Coia church, which was built between 1957 and 1964.

Claims it was “affectionately nicknamed ‘Fort Apache’ by the workies who built it” – which I have never heard before.

Quotes the Guardian article from 2019 which calls it “an architectural and spiritual outlier, a brooding, brutalist box, with thick brick walls, which aped the heft of medieval Caledonian castles”.

Compares it, strangely, to the Bhutanese prison Christian Bale’s Batman heads to in Batman Begins, but perhaps they are referring to the Pit in a Dark Knight Rises – similar brick work, at any rate:

St Bride's refurbishment 2016

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£2 million refurbishment was completed in 2016, mainly to deal with problems of windows, external brickwork and water ingress.

St Bride’s is one of only 42 post-war buildings in Scotland to be listed at Category A.

[Daily Record]

“Ultimately it is hoped to restore the original composition of the structure by rebuilding a feature bell tower which was sadly demolished in 1983. Fundraising to that end is still ongoing following the sad passing of its chief architect, Professor Andy McMillan, with well-wishers being urged to donate to the fund.” [Urban Realm]