Towers Hall - Design and Construction

Design and Construction

Towers was designed by Gollins Melvin Ward & Partners Chartered Architects of London in 1963, who were also designers of much of University of Sheffield, the British Airways terminal at John F. Kennedy International Airport, New York and the Royal Military Academy building. The building was originally the proposed by John Bridgeman, the Principal of the Loughborough Teacher Training College. Bridgeman retired in 1963, and the building was completed in the time of the next principal, John Hardie.

Built during 1964-5 by William Moss & Sons Ltd, based in Loughborough, the construction process was not without event as the building began to subside at 8 storeys high as a result of a marsh which lay where Butler Court, a more recent Hall of Residence, now sits, so building work had to be postponed while concrete was pumped into the foundations of the structure.

The building is 210ft (64m) high in total; The East tower is about 157ft (48m) and the West about 183ft (56m). Although the building was finished in 1966 Towers was first used for accommodation in September 1967. The building is a Locally Listed Building of important interest, its description on Charnwood Borough Council's record states that it is a severe ‘modern’ high rise block comprising 2 towers of 22 and 18 storeys linked by a central access tower and is significant for its cold, grey modular pre-cast concrete construction.