William Stone Building
An eight-storey Aalto-influenced tower of 1963-64 inside the grounds of Peterhouse, listed Grade II.
Rising within the grounds of Peterhouse, the William Stone Building is a 1960s high-rise, a tower block of student rooms, which is described as the only one of its kind in the university. It was listed at Grade II in March 1993. It is a residential block belonging to the college, so it is a building to look at rather than to visit.
The design
The tower was designed by the partnership of Leslie Martin with Colin St John Wilson, and built in 1963-64. Their model was the work of Alvar Aalto, which shows in the staggered ground plan, where rooms are offset from one another instead of lining up along a corridor. The listing describes buff brick and copper cladding, a flat roof, horizontal strip windows with varnished timber frames, and a rectangular staircase and lift tower that stands up above the roofline on the east side.
It has eight storeys and is 102 feet (31 m) tall, on a ground plan of roughly 71 by 42 feet. Inside there are rooms for eight fellows and 24 students. The college's own verdict is that it is "interesting historically as a belated and solitary example in Cambridge of the impact of Corbusier's fantasies of the 1920s of high-rise living for modern man".
A bequest, and later changes
The £100,000 cost was met by a bequest from William Stone, a former member of the college who lived from 1857 to 1958. The first design was later amended because occupants could look straight into one another's windows, and the building was refurbished in 2007-08 with solar panels added to the roof.
Seeing it
It is a college residence, so view it as part of a visit to Peterhouse and follow the college's own visitor arrangements.
Nearby
Within a few minutes' walk
