Wills Memorial Building
The Wills Memorial Building is a listed building complex of the University of Bristol in Bristol , England.
history
The Wills Memorial Building was donated in 1912 by the majority owners of the tobacco manufacturer Imperial Tobacco , the sons of Henry Overton Wills III , George Alfred Wills and Henry Herbert Wills. Henry Overton Wills III had donated the then enormous amount of £ 100,000 with the condition that the University of Bristol be founded within a year. After the establishment in 1909, he became its first chancellor .
The planning contract went to the British architect, later Sir, George Oatley . He designed a building ensemble in the Perpendicular style , reminiscent of the late Gothic buildings of the universities of Oxford and Cambridge . Oatley had the contract to build permanently and had no financial problems, as the family fortune from the Wills' tobacco shops was inexhaustible. The construction work began in the First World War in 1915. After a war-related interruption from 1916 to 1919, they were continued so that the building could be inaugurated on June 9, 1925 by King George V and his wife Queen Mary .
During the German bombing war ( The Blitz ) against Great Britain from 1940 to 1944, Bristol was bombed frequently. The great hall of the university, built as a hammer-beam vault , was damaged and was not rebuilt true to the original until the 1960s.
The buildings have been cleaned and maintained since 2006.
architecture
The dominant part of the ensemble is the Wills Tower, which towers over the surrounding buildings with a height of 68 meters. It is made of reinforced concrete and clad with sandstone from the surrounding area. The square tower is crowned by an octagonal bell tower in which the sixth largest bell in England, Great George , announces the time on the hour. The weight of the bell is over 9.5 tons.
In the entrance hall under the tower, two huge flights of stairs lead to the Great Hall. Other parts of the building are z. B. Wills Memorial Geology Library and more than 50 administrative and study rooms.
The German-born, British architecture critic Nikolaus Pevsner commented on the complex as follows: .. a forced march through the neo-Gothic , so convincingly built, so huge, so skilful that you can't help but pay your respects .
use
The law faculty and geosciences are currently (2011) housed in the buildings. To the people of Bristol they are simply the university .
literature
- S. Whittingham: Wills Memorial Building , Bristol, 2003 ISBN 0-86292541X
In the biography of Harry Patch ("The Last Fighting Tommy"), who died in 2009 and at the age of 111 was the last survivor of the British who fought in World War I, there is some information about the construction of the Wills Tower.
Web links
Coordinates: 51 ° 27 ′ 22 " N , 2 ° 36 ′ 16" W.