A History of the Cambridge University Press, 1521-1921

by S. C. Roberts

Camden.

A favourable reply having, no doubt, been received from the university, the Committee, at a meeting held at the Thatched House Tavern on 18 June, 1824, unanimously passed the following resolution:

That the surplus of the Fund, after defraying the Expense of the Statue in Hanover-Square, as resolved at the former meeting on the 11^th instant, be applied to the Erection of a handsome and appropriate Building at Cambridge, connected with the University Press; such to bear the name of M^r Pitt. That the Committee be desired to take the necessary steps for carrying into execution this Resolution.

The university, on its part, appointed a Syndicate with authority to expend the sum of £8000 in purchasing "houses or leases of houses for the purpose of making exchanges with the Proprietors of the houses between Silver Street and Mill Lane fronting towards Trumpington Street."

After some years of delay the Committee approved the designs submitted by Edmund Blore, who came to Cambridge with a letter of introduction from the Marquess Camden in 1829. In this letter the desire of the Committee for an imposing central chamber and staircase is evident:

It is necessary to premise, that the Committee is desirous that an handsome Room should be included in the Design, together with a staircase leading to it, but that the Committee would be most desirous any Accommodation could be given to the Press in the Building to be erected which did not interfere with those parts which they think should be ornamented.

Subsequently the university obtained the whole frontage between Mill Lane and Silver Street—a larger site than that on which Blore's original design had been based. Furthermore, the Pitt statue in Hanover Square cost more than had been anticipated. The Pitt Memorial Committee, therefore, undertook to erect the main building in Trumpington Street at a cost of £9000, while the university authorised an expenditure of not more than £2000 upon the buildings (also designed by Blore) which form the north side of the Press quadrangle.

The first stone of the Pitt Press building was laid by the Marquess Camden on 18 October, 1831, and the work was completed in about eighteen months, the total cost being £10,711 8s 9d.

It consists of three floors with a square central tower containing a lofty room designed for the Press Syndicate, but now used as the Registry of the University. As to the architectural style of the building, comment may best be confined to the repetition of Willis and Clark's laconic description: "The style of the building is Late Perpendicular." Some extracts from the account of the opening on 28 April, 1833, abridged from The Cambridge Chronicle (1 May, 1833), may also be given in conclusion:

The Pitt Press having been completed, Tuesday last was appointed for the Vice-Chancellor to receive the key of the building from the Marquis Camden and a deputation of the Pitt Committee.... Having arrived at the building the Marquis Camden, accompanied by the members of the Committee, proceeded into the grand entrance hall, and having invited the Vice-Chancellor to the door, spoke as follows: