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Lady Mitchell Hall — Landmark, Newnham, Cambridge

Lady Mitchell Hall

A Grade II listed brick-and-metal lecture theatre on the Sidgwick Site, big enough for 500 and used for the Darwin College Lecture Series.

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The University of Cambridge owns Lady Mitchell Hall, a big lecture theatre on the Sidgwick Site, north of Sidgwick Avenue. The building has Grade II listing.

The building

The hall is polygonal in plan, built in brick under a metal roof. Casson, Conder and Partners built it between 1956 and 1968, and it seats 500 people, which makes it one of the university's larger lecture rooms.

Lectures and a rock footnote

Cambridge uses the hall for important general-interest lectures. The best-known is the annual Darwin College Lecture Series, run by Darwin College. It also has a small place in pop history. The hall hosted the first public concert John Lennon gave alongside another artist, on 2 March 1969, and to mark the 50th anniversary a plaque was unveiled in the foyer on 2 March 2019.

Visiting

This is a university teaching building rather than a sightseeing stop. Entry is normally to attend an event, so look at the lecture series programmes if you want to see the inside. The outside can be seen from the Sidgwick Site paths.