Sir Thomas White Building, St John's College

Sir Thomas White Building, St John's College

Student accommodation and common rooms designed between 1967 and 1970, and built from 1972 to 1975, designed by Philip Dowson of Arup Associates for St John's College. The contractors were Johnson and Baily Ltd, with pre-cast concrete supplied by Sindall Concrete Products Ltd.

The building comprises a series of linked pavilions assembled from pre-cast H- and half-H-shaped units of white cement with grey limestone aggregate, bush hammered where exposed. Floor slabs are concrete, and the building is clad in St Maximin limestone. Full-height windows are set in metal frames. Recessed penthouses are block-work structures with timber roofs, clad in lead sheeting.

The building stands to the north-east of the northern quadrangle of St John's College and has an L-shaped footprint, with two main wings running roughly west-east and north-south, adjoining 31 Museum Road at the north-east corner. The plan creates an open quadrangle to the south-west, enclosed by a square pavilion projecting westwards from the south end of the north-south wing, the rear of the earlier Rawlinson Building, and mature trees of the President's garden. The north elevation of the west-east wing backs onto Lamb and Flag Passage and Museum Road, straddling an earlier boundary wall. Adjacent to the east elevation is a lawn enclosed by the rears of 25-31 Museum Road and the west elevation of the Garden Quadrangle (1993).

The building is five storeys tall. Common rooms, porter's lodge and services occupy the ground floor, with bedrooms on the floors above. Aside from smaller square end pavilions, each block is two units deep and adjoins a stair and service tower containing WCs, sinks, shower rooms and kitchens. On the fifth floor, recessed from the building line with deep balconies, are a reduced number of larger bedroom units, with baths in the service towers.

The exterior has a modular appearance consisting of octagonal pavilions linked by blind octagonal stair and service towers, with square pavilions at the ends. Each octagonal pavilion has three bays with paired posts framing the central bay and open-angled bays to either side. Where vertical posts meet horizontal beams, the corners are splayed at 45 degrees, a motif repeated throughout the building in the chamfered corners of towers, recessed octagonal penthouse units, angled door heads, angled steps and other details. At each junction between the H- or half-H-shaped frame units is a notch, emphasising the modularity of the structure.

At ground-floor level the elevation recesses from the building line, and paired posts form a colonnade running the length of the internal elevation. On the north elevation, an earlier rubble limestone wall bounding Lamb and Flag Passage and Museum Road stands just within the undercroft, tight against the paired posts of the concrete frame. On upper floors, full-height windows sit behind the frame; the inward-facing elevation is almost entirely glazed, whereas on outer elevations the central bays are infilled with stone cladding. The paired vertical posts terminate at penthouse balcony level, with the balustrade set back. Penthouse units are clad in lead with shallow mansard roofs with hipped corners. Stair and service towers with canted corners are blind and stone-clad, and together with the penthouses create an undulating roofline.

The narrow spiral stairs within their octagonal wells are terrazzo with quarry tile skirtings and timber handrails, top-lit by lanterns. They lead to plainly detailed landings providing access to bedrooms, bathrooms and kitchens. Internal doors have simple brushed-steel knobs and name plates.

Bedrooms retain good-quality oak fixtures, including window benches, bookcases and latticed privacy screens set in concealed runners along window frames or creating internal partitions. Common rooms retain timber skirtings, window cills and doors with angled heads.