Corpus Christi And Sidney Sussex Boathouse

The Corpus Christi and Sidney Sussex Boathouse is a boathouse with changing facilities, built in 1958 by David Roberts and extended to the sides in the 1980s. It features a lightweight steel frame on piled concrete foundations, with brick and some weatherboarding on the first floor front. The shallow first floor houses the changing facilities and has a flat felt roof, while the deeper three-bay boat store below has lean-to extensions and a pitched roof. The front has a symmetrical composition of three main bays, with set-back lean-tos on either side, all featuring folding doors under clerestory glazing, which is now blocked. Above the changing rooms, there is a near-continuous band of glazing with square panes and doors at either end, set behind a steel and timber balcony, accessible via spiral concrete stairs on either side, which have powerful newel posts and slender steel balustrades. The front displays shields of the colleges sharing the boathouse, along with four flagpoles that complete the delicate grid of the composition. The ground floor interior serves as a simple store, while the upper floor is described as 'spartan', as it does not overlook racing and elaborate facilities were not necessary.

Rowing began at Cambridge in the 1820s, before it was introduced at Oxford. Corpus Christi College established its first club between 1827 and 1830, followed by Sidney Sussex in the early 1830s. These colleges were the first to build a combined boathouse. This boathouse is notable as the first modern style boathouse built at Cambridge, and it has been widely imitated both locally and elsewhere. It is a graceful building that effectively utilizes a small budget of £13,000. The thin, angular lines are well-suited to its river setting and contrast with the more flamboyant styles of earlier boathouses nearby.