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100 Facts - Design & Construction

100 Facts

  1. As early as 1895 the College launched a public appeal for a building fund for a site that had been made available in Cathays Park.
  2. In 1900, John Viriamu Jones, the first Principal of the College, appeared before the Corporation of Cardiff to petition for the granting of a site in Cathays Park. His appeal was successful, and the Corporation resolved to grant to the college a site of five acres - the site on which Main Building now stands.
  3. A limited competition was held for the design of the new building. The architect who won was William Douglas Caroe, the son of the Danish Consul for Liverpool.
  4. Caroe had no previous experience designing universities, having built up his reputation largely as an ecclesiastical architect.
  5. The original design for Main Building included fountains, manicured lawns, grand statues of notable academics, a Great Hall and a Great Court.
  6. Although the verdant lawns and fountains were never realised, at one time grass tennis courts filled the gap between the north and south wings.
  7. Caroe described his plan for Main Building as hoping to achieve “the charm and quiet dignity and scale” of Trinity College, Cambridge, coupled with the “picturesque balance and delightful proportions of some of the Oxford colleges”.
  8. Prior to the construction of Main Building, the Old Infirmary on Newport Road was the first home of university education in Cardiff. Until 1909, this building was home to the entire university college.
  9. Building work on Main Building commenced in 1905 and was completed in many stages, the first in 1909.
  10. The foundation stone in Main Building was laid on 28th June 1905 by His Royal Highness, the Prince of Wales. In the ceremony, the architect, William Douglas Caroe, formally handed the trowel to Prince George, who then officially laid the Foundation Stone in his role as Chancellor.
  11. Main Building was originally known as ‘New College’.
    12. Science Library

    Science Library

  12. Providing women with exactly the same educational opportunities as men was a founding principle of the new University College. However, it was still considered essential that separate entrances and common rooms be provided for women so these arrangements had to be incorporated into the design for Main Building.
  13. In a brochure published in 1904 by the College, a ‘Bird’s Eye View’ drawing of Main Building was captioned: “The view is taken from the sky above the Park…it is not a point of view which, except from a flying machine, can ever be realised”.
  14. With the design for Main Building’s impressive Library, Caroe said that “it may possibly be remarked that the fine Library at Trinity College, Dublin, has been in my mind.”
  15. Caroe’s original plans called for pedestals, for emblematical representations of ‘Sapientia’, ‘Ars’, ‘Scientia’ and ‘Philosophia’, at the piers of the main entrance.
  16. The opening of Main Building provided the College’s collection of books with an architecturally splendid home. In recognition of a gift of £16,000 by the Worshipful Drapers’ Company of London, the new library was named the Drapers’ Library and housed about 30,000 volumes when it opened in 1909.
  17. As well as providing a home for the College’s collection of books, the Drapers’ Library was also planned for use as a great hall in which formal ceremonies, concerts, dances and other functions might be held.
  18. The construction and opening of Main Building was a topic of interest both locally and nationally. Articles regularly appeared in local press reporting on progress during the construction phase.
  19. During the construction process, the light fittings in the vestibule, Library and Council Chamber were specially designed to suit the style of those departments, those in the vestibule being real bronze and those in the Library and Council Chamber being of ornamental wrought iron.
  20. When Main Building opened, the Western Mail enthusiastically reported on a uniquely modern feature of its lighting installation: “the special system of corridor switching, by which, when the College is in darkness, a leading light can be obtained in any corridor or lecture room without having to switch on unnecessary lights, thus a light can be switched on at any point and switched off at another without having to retrace one’s steps.”
  21. The building contractors responsible for Main Building were Messrs E Turner & Sons, Cardiff.