University of Essex - Wivenhoe Park Campus

Wivenhoe Park Campus

The main campus, Wivenhoe Park, was once painted by famous landscape painter John Constable. With its concrete architecture, it is typical of England's 1960s universities. Wivenhoe Park houses the main 1960s buildings along with an 18th century house that also features in Constable's painting. Wivenhoe House was, until 2010, operated as a hotel and conference centre. It was closed in December 2010 for major refurbishment and will reopen in 2012 as a combined four-star country house hotel and hotel school.

There are 2 small lakes on campus (in the middle of one is the Vice-Chancellor's House).

The architect of the University of Essex campus took the Tuscan town of San Gimignano with its squares and towers as an inspiration (the university has six residential towers mainly for undergraduates, but the original plan was to build 29). As well as the towers, South Courts and the University Quays residences provide enough space to guarantee every first year a place on campus as well as all overseas students. Due to its particular form of architecture involving the use of prefabricated concrete and glass, the university is referred to as a Plate Glass University.

The library has one of the few remaining still operating continuous loop paternoster lifts in the country.