Cripps Building At St John'S College

The Cripps Building at St John's College, Cambridge, was designed by architects A.J. Phillip Powell (later Sir) and John Hidalgo ('Jacko') Moya between 1962 and 1963, and constructed between 1964 and 1967. Structural engineers Charles Weiss and Partners assisted with the design.

The building was made possible by a gift of £75,000 offered by C.H. Cripps to the college in 1959. Cripps, who had graduated from St John's in 1959, was a successful businessman in his father's motor components manufacturing firm and established the Cripps Foundation with his father, Sir Cyril Cripps, as chairman. Cripps remained closely involved throughout the building work and supplied bronze windows, door hinges and other metalwork from his own firm. The completed building cost just over £1 million and received a RIBA award in 1967 and a Civic Trust award in 1968. A bust of Sir Cyril Cripps was unveiled in the Porter's Lodge in 1973.

The structure features L-shaped concrete columns clad in Whitbed Portland stone containing ductwork, with walls of Roach-bed Portland stone and Whitbed quoins. The floor slabs are exposed in situ concrete with white concrete mullions and bronze window frames and lead aprons. The end walls are faced with lead panels. The flat roof is felted and pebbled with concrete benches at the eaves, deep eaves to penthouse apartments, and projecting stair turrets and plant rooms resembling chimneys.

The plan forms an asymmetrical zig-zag in six sections, rising four storeys with penthouses. Eight staircases serve the building, rising above a partly open ground floor arranged as a cloister. The elevations reflect the plan with a recurring pattern of long narrow sets, double sets and study bedrooms arranged around each staircase, creating a rhythm of narrow and broad bays with off-centre mullions. Long narrow sets have square windows. Double sets project forward and are emphasised by their breadth. The glazing follows a horizontal pattern with broad swivel-opening panes set between two transoms, complementing the expressed frame.

The stairs feature set-back vertical windows. Covered ways link the building with surrounding grounds, making impressive use of contrasting stone walls, concrete staircases, and stone and brick paviours and steps.

A glazed Porter's Lodge is located on the north elevation.

The eight staircases retain their original balustrades and serve six two-room sets and two study-bedrooms on each of the three upper floors, plus twelve penthouse studios. Kitchens with original cupboards and cooking facilities are clustered back-to-back at the rear of each staircase, alongside shower and toilet facilities for each landing. Each landing has Mehuhu hardwood block floors. Bedrooms feature fitted bookcases, some with wash-basin screens and hessian-faced internal partitions. The interior retains most original fixtures and fittings, including all stair detailing, doors, door furniture and window fittings.