Gibbs 300
The iconic building at the heart of King's celebrates its tercentenary in 2024
On 25 March 2024 the Gibbs Building turns 300.
Over the coming year King’s will be celebrating the past three centuries of Gibbs and the men and women who have lived and worked here, and looking ahead to its future.
An 18th century engraving by Lamborn depicting 'King's College, New Building, Cambridge' (GIB-36 KCD-146)
An 18th century engraving by Lamborn depicting 'King's College, New Building, Cambridge' (GIB-36 KCD-146)
Gibbs sits at the heart of King’s. Of great historic, architectural and cultural significance, it is the College’s second-oldest building and a Grade I listed world-class heritage asset. With the Chapel it creates one of Cambridge’s most iconic views, recognised by millions around the world.
But Gibbs is more than just a historic building. Over the years it has been a place of creativity, discovery, innovation and endless conversation. And for generations of King’s students, it’s where the first nerve-wracking admissions interview took place, where supervisions – terrifying or inspiring – happen, and where lifelong connections have been made.
"I arrived at King’s in 1982 as a postgraduate student from Dublin. When I first met him I told Nick Bullock, the graduate tutor, that Gibbs was my favourite building in King’s. He said he was not in the least bit surprised as Gibbs was so like other buildings in Dublin. Of course he was right! I now even have an engraving of the Gibbs Building, drawn and engraved by J. Greig, hanging in my house."
The story of the Gibbs Building goes back to the earliest years of the College, and the original vision of founder Henry VI.
Although technically the first stone of Gibbs was laid in 1461 when masons working on the Chapel left behind a large block of stone in the Front Court, Henry VI’s original intention for a ‘Great Court’ in his College was derailed by the Wars of the Roses and the Chapel’s building costs. The work of completing the project only taken up in earnest by Provost John Adams, soon after his election in 1712.
Architect Nicholas Hawksmoor prepared a scheme which included the Founder’s great court to the south of the Chapel; although the buildings were to be in Palladian and not the Gothic manner.
"The Generall Plan of King's College" by James Gibbs (KCD-0284)
"The Generall Plan of King's College" by James Gibbs (KCD-0284)
On 8 May 1714 the Provost and Fellows confirmed the continuation of the Founder’s design, and by the end of the year a building fund had been established, with a number of Fellows donating. However further delays followed and when the project was eventually put in hand, it was to a new design by the influential architect James Gibbs (who also designed the University Senate House).
A list of benefactors to the new building in 1724
A list of benefactors to the new building in 1724
Gibbs’ scheme was for three buildings, which would have formed a substantial courtyard to the south of the Chapel. The foundation stone of the west range – the only part of the scheme to be completed - was laid on 25 March 1724, using the Chapel stone left behind in 1461; and the building began to be occupied in the summer of 1732.
Words from an anthem by Thomas Tudway for the anniversary of the dedication to King's College Chapel and laying of the College's Foundation stone, 1724 (GIB-005-1)
Words from an anthem by Thomas Tudway for the anniversary of the dedication to King's College Chapel and laying of the College's Foundation stone, 1724 (GIB-005-1)
The most beautiful College set I knew as well as the best-beloved…
One room, crimson papered, looked onto the Front Court through the great semi-circular window.
EM Forster describing Goldsworthy Lowes Dickinson’s room in G5
Since the first occupants arrived in the summer of 1732, the four staircases in Gibbs – E, F, G and H – have been home to generations of Fellows and students, including many of King’s most notable (and often eccentric) members.
Some notable occupants of Gibbs include:
The poet Rupert Brooke was in E1 from 1907 to 1908; Phil Vincent, founder of Vincent Motorcycles, was in E2 (now the Development Director’s office) in 1929, and Nobel Prize-winning biologist Sydney Brenner lived in E6 and then E2 in the 1960s.
Dean Eric Milner-White, who devised the Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols, occupied F1 between 1904 and 1933, and David Willcocks, Director of Music, was a long-time occupant of F5 from 1958. In the 1920s physiologist Hamilton Hartridge, finding his room in F3 full of bats, stretched silk threads across the room, turned off the lights, noted the bats’ evasive tactics and suggested that it was done by echolocation; sadly he didn’t publish his findings, and it fell to two Harvard scholars to perform and publish conclusive experiments in the late 1930s.
The evangelical preacher Charles Simeon lived in G5, above the arch in Gibbs, in the early 1820s (and had the bridge over the Cam moved to its current position as he thought it would improve his view); EM Forster’s good friend Goldsworthy Lowes Dickinson had the same room from 1913 to 1928.
Ghost story writer MR James lived in H5 for nine years before he moved into the Provost’s Lodge in 1905; Ludwig Wittgenstein threatened Karl Popper with a poker in H3 in 1946; and Stephen Cleobury, King’s Director of Music for 37 years, occupied H1 from 1987 to 2019.
Rupert Brooke in uniform (RCB-Ph-262)
Rupert Brooke in uniform (RCB-Ph-262)
Reverend Charles Simeon, Fellow of King's (KCAC-1-4-Simeon-1)
Reverend Charles Simeon, Fellow of King's (KCAC-1-4-Simeon-1)
Carrie Humphrey © Jooney Woodward 2023. Photographed for '50 Portraits - An Exhibition'
Carrie Humphrey © Jooney Woodward 2023. Photographed for '50 Portraits - An Exhibition'
Gibbs is in many ways the working heart of King’s. It has housed disruptive and innovative thinkers over the years; but it is also home to a number of the College’s administrative offices and is where King’s Fellows research and teach, in their own rooms and in shared space for supervisions and larger groups.
It brings together classicists and biochemists, mathematicians and historians, who can do their best work in rooms away from corridors and external noise; and provide teaching in unique, open and beautiful spaces conducive to the greatest thinking.
In Gibbs today, Professor John Dunn in E6 is applying a historical perspective to modern political theory; Professor Charlie Loke and Professor Ashley Moffett share a set on G staircase, working on aspects of the immunology of human reproduction; leading anthropologist Professor Dame Carrie Humphrey is on E staircase, and social anthropologist Dr Perveez Mody on G; and Professor Nicky Zeeman and Dr Laura Davies study and teach English Literature in a shared set on G Staircase.
The Turing Room in E basement formerly housed the computer room and is now home to the King's Entrepreneurship Lab, co-directed by Dr Kamiar Mohaddes and Professor Thomas Roulet, supporting students who want to explore careers in innovation, entrepreneurship and business.
Since its completion the College has carried out various works to repair and update the building and its rooms.
Gas lighting was supplied in 1846, water closets installed in 1849 and 1856, running water in 1860, telephones in 1886, and drains in 1896. New, lower chimneys were installed in 1913, boilers for Chapel heating were fitted in the Gibbs basement in 1924, and lavatories were proposed in 1938; but not installed until 1954 (along with central heating for the Gibbs building itself). It underwent major repairs due to death watch beetle damage throughout the 1930s, received a new Westmorland slate roof in 1957 and saw the installation of the Turing computer room in 1986, now the location for the King’s E-Lab. Part of the white Portland stone façade was cleaned in 1991, and the entire outside cleaned in 2016.
Gibbs was designated a Grade I listed building in 1950. It now needs fundamental conservation, restoration and renewal to be made ready for the future.
‘The Gibbs Building is a master-work of architecture, of cool and elegant design by one of the greatest architects of 18th century Britain, James Gibbs. Its physical fabric is an exalted exercise in skilful craftsmanship and notable materials. But it is not only a place of beauty. It is a place of never-ceasing hospitality, of warm welcome, of lives led with a passion for ‘making human lives better’ through research, innovation and – most of all – the exercise of good and civilised conversation.’
The Gibbs 300th anniversary challenge
Gibbs is vital to King’s, and the project is one of the College’s current highest priorities. The project to renew and restore it will cost in the region of £25 million.
To kickstart the appeal for Gibbs, an alumnus has offered a £1 million pledge to establish a matching gift fund - the Gibbs 300th Anniversary Fund – to double gifts given over the course of 2024 up to a total of £1 million.
Alumni and friends are invited to take up the challenge and unlock this additional funding by making a gift. Donors to Gibbs will be recognised within the building, and significant gifts may offer naming opportunities.
Funding will enable the building’s repair and conservation, refurbishment of the four staircases and Fellows’ and other rooms and the basement areas, and critical thermal upgrade work and energy efficiency improvements, alongside improved access.
King's is committed to making its buildings, old and new, as sustainable as possible. The internal improvements to Gibbs to make it fit for the 21st century and beyond could ultimately make an even greater impact on reducing the College's carbon footprint than the installation of the solar panels on the chapel roof.
Learn more about how you can support the campaign for Gibbs
‘I came up for interview on a cold and misty day in November 1962. Having spent the night in a room in the ‘Drain’ (subsequently demolished when the Keynes building was erected), I was interviewed the next day in the Gibbs Building by the Senior Tutor, John Raven. I remember nothing of the interview, except for the fact that I had been overwhelmed by the beauty of the buildings, and the almost tangible sense of 500 years of learning that emanated from the College. I desperately wanted to be accepted.’
Tony Lonton
(KC 1963)
Built with Shorthand