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1640 Christ's College Fellows' Building

Christ's College Fellows' Building, South side

Christ's College Fellows' Building, West side

There are giant pilasters at each corner, topped by strangely squat Ionic capitals, and pilasters flanking each door. The orders are not however used to control the composition. The central door is wider than the other two and has a correspondingly higher arch. In order to accommodate the window above the central door, the arch is made four-centred rather than semi-circular, and the window had to be reduced in height. In his design for Emmanuel Chapel, Wren approached a similar problem in a more classical way.

Christ's College Fellows' Building, South-East corner

Ground floor windows are surrounded by alternating rustication, a feature that was, in the 18th century, to become known as the Gibbs surround. It appeared in Serlio's Libro Estraordinario of 1551, and was brought to England by Inigo Jones. Another innovative motif for Cambridge was the use of upright mullion-and-transom cross windows, rather than the old style horizontal mullioned windows.

Ray likes the building, pointing out that, although imperfect in its classicism, it is neither self-consciously mannerist, nor provincially clumsy. He describes it as robust and cleverly inventive, with bouncy rythms in the alternating window pediment shapes.

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