1934–2009: Celebrating 75 years of the new University Library
Planning stages
On 7th May 1921 the Senate of the University of Cambridge voted to find a new site for the University Library, later settling on land belonging to King's and Clare Colleges in West Cambridge. The following year the Syndics approached Sir Giles Gilbert Scott to produce draft plans for the new building and he presented his first designs in 1923-4. Along with some of Scott's initial sketches, two 1924 watercolours by Cyril A. Farley survive: one of the front of the proposed building and a second of a 'general reading room'.
However, costs were prohibitive and in 1926 the Syndics, led by Sir Hugh Anderson of Gonville and Cauis College, broached the question of funding to the Rockefeller Foundation. Initially the Foundation was non-committal, noting that "the design for the new library ... seems atrocious". Nonetheless, and on the proviso that design changes would be made, it came to be understood that Rockefeller aid would be forthcoming. A.F. Scholfield, the University Librarian, wrote to Scott on the matter of the design, suggesting that "the facade was not thought to be sufficiently imposing ... partly its modesty ... partly its austerity ... a fresh design is asked for". Scott replied immediately and by early June 1927 had produced sketches that foreshadow a reddish brick building with a tower.
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