Dates

• Existence: 1788 - 1863

Biography

In 1829 a competition was held for a new Cambridge University Library on the site of the Old Schools and existing Library. The designs of Charles Robert Cockerell (1788-1863) were selected in preference to those of Decimus Burton, William Wilkins and Rickman and Hutchinson. Cockerell also submitted a more ambitious proposal. This, and the scale of the proposed work, led to a second competition, 1830, won by Rickman and Hutchinson. There was a pamphlet war over the proposals, 1831-35. A third competition, 1836, was won by Cockerell. The north range (the Cockerell Building, now Gonville and Caius College Library) was begun in 1837 and completed in 1842. Cockerell produced other schemes for a complete rebuilding, but the north range was the only part executed.