Derwent College, University of York

Derwent College is a university college built between 1963 and 1965 to the design of Robert Matthew, Johnson-Marshall and Partners (RMJM), with Stiratt Johnson-Marshall and Andrew Derbyshire as the partners in charge, working in association with the CLASP Development Team. The cast relief artist was Fred Millett. The structural engineers were Scott and Wilson, Kirkpatrick and Partners, and the contractor was F Shepherd and Son.

Materials and Construction

The construction employs a variant of the CLASP Mark 3B system developed by Nottinghamshire County Council for schools and other local authority buildings. It comprises a cold-rolled steel frame clad in precast concrete panels with a Trent River Gravel exposed aggregate finish, softwood-framed windows with aluminium opening lights including projecting oriels, and flat felt-covered roofs.

Plan and Layout

The college is orientated north-west to south-east and sits immediately to the north-west of Heslington Hall, a building dating from 1565 that served as the original administrative centre of the university. It overlooks an artificial lake to the west and is set around an open rectangular courtyard to the north and an open rectangular pool to the south. The communal and teaching accommodation is concentrated in a two-storey central nucleus around which are arranged three and four storey residential wings. A pedestrian walkway runs through the complex and links it via covered ways to the adjoining buildings on the campus.

A double-height foyer and dining hall form the centre of the broadly L-shaped service and teaching core, from which project three L-shaped wings to the north-west, south-east and, linked only by a walkway across the pool, a wing to the south. To the east of the central foyer and hall is a café bar, kitchen and a lecture theatre, while to the west towards the lake projects a block containing common rooms, teaching rooms and offices. The residential wings contain study bedrooms and communal facilities grouped off staircases reached from the main pedestrian route.

Exterior

The exterior presents an asymmetrical composition. At the centre is the two-storey broadly L-shaped service and teaching core, from which project the L-shaped residential blocks of three and four storeys. The treatment of the elevations is similar throughout. The exterior walls are formed of precast concrete panels with a Trent River Gravel exposed aggregate finish attached to steel box stanchions and beams supporting wooden floors internally. A slight variation in texture and projection of the concrete panels differentiates the horizontal floor bands from the vertically set room height panels. There are dry joints between the panels, which have angled drainage channels at their edges, and are set upon a moulded precast concrete plinth.

The fenestration to the residential blocks includes a mixture of narrow, half-width windows, and wider, full-width windows occupying the place of a full precast panel, with a central sliding aluminium light between top and bottom transoms. These are also combined into larger, one-and-a-half width windows with an off centre mullion, or double-width windows, most divided by transoms to conform to the tripartite glazing pattern. Colour is provided by white and blue vitreous enamel panels occupying the positions of the lower subsidiary lights in several of these windows. Further variety is provided by projecting full-width oriel windows, some to the south towards Heslington Hall having been renewed. All the windows of the south-east residential wing have been replaced with black PVC frames and panels but these correspond to the original glazing pattern. There are flush timber doors and softwood glazed doors providing entry into the blocks at ground level. The main entrances along the walkway have had steel-framed glazed automatic doors fitted in around 1990 and renewed in about 2014, which are not of special interest.

The elevations towards the lake and open pool are, for the most part, raised over ground-floor pilotis whilst the other elevations are flush to the ground floor. The central service and teaching core, including the dining hall, common rooms and former first-floor library, are treated with wider expanses of glazing, comprising combinations of multiple lights but replicating the tripartite pattern. Attached to the rear of the kitchen and servery is a single-storey extension, which runs the length of the kitchen but is a single bay wide, with an entrance raised on pilotis to provide service access for deliveries.

At ground floor level, in close proximity to the main walkway running through the college, are six sculptural relief panels in cast concrete by Fred Millett. These comprise abstract shapes forming a variety of textures and patterns, which are enlivened by artificial light at night. They have the dual purpose of hiding the steel wind braces that support the structural frame. Outside the dining hall is a stone plaque with an incised inscription that commemorates the opening of the college by HRH Queen Elizabeth II on 22 October 1965.

The blocks have flat felt-covered roofs with an extruded aluminium eaves capping. Maintenance and emergency access is provided by square timber-boarded roof porches. Originally there were 25 sharply-pointed pyramidal rooflights, comprising a combination of facetted solid panels and glazing, over the foyer and dining hall but these have been removed or replaced with shallow-pitched polycarbonate lights. Protective steel rails have been added around the perimeter of some of the roofs and are not of special interest.

Covered Walkways and External Features

The covered walkways linking the blocks are constructed of pilotis with precast concrete panels forming a fascia to the flat felt-covered roofs; these are built on the CLASP system. However, where they extend beyond the college to meet the neighbouring buildings the walkways are non-CLASP, comprising steel columns supporting I-beams and timber joists carrying a timber-boarded roof with timber fascias and a felt roof covering. These were designed by the main architects in conjunction with the architect Dick Howard. They incorporate a central overhead services duct constructed of timber, which carries electrical wiring, television and telephone cables between the buildings. The covered walkway extending to the south-east to Heslington Hall is included in the listing.

The main pedestrian route is paved in concrete slabs, which continue through the blocks underneath the recently-added tiled carpets. Where it skirts the outside of the open pool, the walkway forms a concrete bridge above a weir constructed of quarry-faced squared stone. Water runs down from the shallow rectangular pool with regularly placed fountains at the east to the artificial lake at the west. In front of the junior common room is a terrace paved in cast-stone slabs and approached by steps to the west, which is included in the listing. There is further hard landscaping in the form of pebbled slopes flanking the walkway where it links to Heslington Hall, which is also included. The semi-enclosed north court is partly paved in cast-stone slabs and also features an original mushroom-shaped concrete light.

Interior

The college has retained most of its original internal layout, room functions and floor plan. The north-west entrance leads along the pedestrian walkway past a residential block and the north courtyard, which is enclosed on three sides, to the double-height central foyer, café bar and dining hall. Above the entrance to the foyer is a decorative ceramic sculptural relief by the artist John Langton and ceramicist David Lloyd-Jones. The café bar and dining hall have been refurbished and contain modern fixtures and fittings from the 2010s, which are not of special interest. The dining hall retains an original parquet floor and has a false ceiling, which has been inserted beneath which the original still survives.

On the ground floor, immediately to the east of the dining hall is a servery and kitchen. Next to the kitchen is a lecture room, which was refurbished in around 2016. On the first floor, above the kitchen and lecture room, is a suite of academic offices. To the west of the central foyer are: a lecture theatre, common rooms and offices on the ground floor, with a classroom, a seminar room, and further offices occupying the space of the former library on the first floor; these rooms largely contain modern fittings, which are not of special interest.

The pedestrian walkway continues south-east from the central foyer and leads outside and around the open pool, then past two residential blocks to continue towards Heslington Hall. The residential blocks, now referred to as Blocks A to D, contain study bedrooms grouped off staircases on each floor, including one and two person bedrooms and flats. The original heater and washer units and wardrobes, the only built-in items, have largely been removed and the fixtures and fittings within these rooms are not of special interest. The groupings share communal kitchens, largely containing modern fittings, as well as laundry rooms, showers and bathrooms. A few study bedrooms have been converted to offices, these mostly on the ground floor of the north-west block (Block A).

Among the surviving original fixtures and fittings to the college are: linoleum floors, flush timber doors and glazed softwood doors, plasterboard or plastic-faced plywood partitions, softwood glazed screens and plasterboard or timber suspended ceilings. The internal staircases have precast concrete stair treads and landing units fixed to steel stringers and landing beams, raking steel balustrades and timber handrails. Some retain the original rubber treads to the stairs and landings.

Exclusions

The following are not of special architectural or historic interest: the steel roof rails, lamp posts, air conditioning units, the automatic doors, the steel handrails, and the modern timber decking to the north courtyard of Derwent College. Internally, the fixtures and fittings within the study bedrooms and flats, communal kitchens, laundry rooms, showers and bathrooms, lecture room and offices, as well as those within the kitchen and servery are not of special interest. The café bar and dining hall were refurbished in the 2010s and these later fixtures and fittings, in addition to the modern reception desks and disabled lift, are also not of special interest.