St Catherines College, Podium And All Buildings Upon It

St Catherine's College comprises a group of buildings constructed between 1961 and 1966, designed by Arne Jacobsen, and raised upon a substantial podium. The complex includes the dining hall, common room blocks, two residential blocks, a library, the Bernard Sunley Lecture Theatre, a bell tower, covered walkways, a bridge, brick enclosure walls surrounding canal and patio areas, and garden walls. The layout is largely symmetrical, featuring the common rooms and hall to the north of a central quadrangle, with the library and lecture theatres aligned to the south of the hall.

The buildings are primarily constructed from buff sandlime bricks laid in a raking stretcher bond, with reinforced concrete framing and flat roofs. The paving of the podium is formed from concrete slabs laid out in an east-west grid, which corresponds to the bays of the buildings and is highlighted with narrow corrugated slabs, interspersed with planting gaps arranged by the architect. Steps provide access to the podium from the east and south sides.

The hall features a tall, aisled interior with cruciform piers. The common room block is single-storeyed, characterized by vertical brick panels and floor-to-ceiling windows. The library, of a similar height and dimensions to the hall, has a recessed ground floor with brick cladding and a projecting gallery clad in bronze panels, set between floor-to-ceiling glazing. The Lecture Theatre mirrors the hall and library’s framing but shares the library’s footprint; its upper storey is fully glazed with projecting metal sunscreens. The residential blocks are three storeys high, with brick cladding to the ground floor and fully glazed upper floors, framed by strong vertical mullions. Four covered walkways, with glass and metal roofs supported by brick piers, connect the buildings around the central quadrangle. The bell tower, adjacent to the Lecture Theatre, consists of two concrete slabs joined at the top, with vertical bronze bell louvres. Low walls provide enclosure for fellows' rooms at the outer edges of the podium. Twenty-five short stretches of wall, some incorporating seating, run east-west within the gardens at the north and south ends of the podium, providing privacy and visual enclosure.