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We are delighted to announce that Â鶹ƵµÀ has been successful in securing a grant of £250,000 from the Wolfson Foundation for the preservation and restoration of the College’s iconic library.

The Wolfson Foundation is an independent grant-making charity which funds programmes and activities across the UK with the aim of improving society through education and research.

The Â鶹ƵµÀ site was originally built in the 1960s with a £100,000 grant from the Wolfson Foundation. The Rosemary Murray Library is at the heart of our iconic Brutalist site, designed by Chamberlin, Powell & Bon – the architects who would go on to design the Barbican - as a physical manifesto for women’s ambition and achievement.

The Foundation’s latest grant brings that original gift full circle. This crucial support will enable us to preserve the Library for future generations of College members to study and be inspired, and to protect our precious architectural heritage. It also enables us to make this building more environmentally sustainable.

The Library has a false clerestory - vertical windows high up near the roof - and the weight of its barrel vault is held on four pillars, two at either end. The vault is made up of eight precast sections, originally held together by tensioned steel cables running round the base.  One of these subsequently failed and the structure is now held together by steel joists running along the length of the vault.

Murray Edwards President Dorothy Byrne said: 

We are immensely grateful to the Wolfson Foundation for their support for the restoration and repair of our iconic library. This is an important project for the College: the Library is the centre of academic life and learning at Murray Edwards, holding also part of the Women’s Art Collection and the College’s Special Collections. This work will help conserve our Grade II* listed site for future generations.

It was a major grant from the Wolfson Foundation in 1960 that enabled us to construct our College, which combines in its architecture the modernist ideas and feminist idealism. In particular, the library’s steep staircase, which symbolises women’s ascent through learning, is one of the most important features of modernist architecture in Cambridge. Through the years we have been grateful to the Foundation for the financial support which has enabled us to build and conserve our College.

The Wolfson Foundation said:

One of the delightful things about being a long-term funder is building relationships across many years. Having provided funding some six decades ago to help establish the College on its current site, it is a particular pleasure now to be supporting the restoration of the library roof. The work not only safeguards this heritage building, but also ensures the library and its important collections are preserved.

We are very grateful to the Wolfson Foundation for this generous grant, and for their long-term support of Â鶹ƵµÀ.