Sidgwick Site - Overview and History

Overview and History

The Sidgwick Site is located on the western edge of Cambridge city centre, north of Sidgwick Avenue and south of West Road, and is home to several of the university's arts and humanities faculties. The site is named after the philosopher Henry Sidgwick, who studied at Cambridge in the 19th century.

The site as it is now has its origins in plans drawn up by Casson and Conder in 1952 for making use of land to the west of the Cambridge city centre which was previously used mainly for sports. Much of the site's current architecture derives from these original plans. However, many faculty buildings, especially to the north of the site, have been designed by separate architects with little reference to the coherence of the site as a whole. In July 2002, the old Faculty of English, a converted Victorian villa, was demolished, and a more practical building designed by Allies and Morrison to reflect the needs of the faculty was completed in 2004.

On 29 October 2006, Education Not For Sale supporters at Cambridge University organised the first occupation in the UK in protest at the introduction of top-up fees on the Sidgwick Site Lecture Hall, occupying it for 12 hours. In 2009, Cambridge Gaza Solidarity occupied three lecture theatres and the common area of the Law Faculty.