The Brunel University lecture centre is a Grade II

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Hi ...

on the campus of

Brunel University of London Brunel University of London (BUL) is a public research university located in the Uxbridge area of London, England. It is named after Isambard Kingdom Brunel, a Victorian engineer and pioneer of the Industrial Revolution. It became a university ...

Uxbridge Uxbridge () is a suburban town in west London, England, and the administrative headquarters of the London Borough of Hillingdon, northwest of Charing Cross. Uxbridge formed part of the parish of Hillingdon in the county of Middlesex. As part ...

. It contains six large lecture halls with capacities of 160 to 200 people each, as well as smaller teaching rooms and lecture halls with capacities of 60 to 80. It was built in the mid-1960s in a

brutalist Brutalist architecture is an architectural style that emerged during the 1950s in the United Kingdom, among the reconstruction projects of the post-war era. Brutalist buildings are characterised by minimalist constructions that showcase the b ...

style, using mostly

reinforced concrete Reinforced concrete, also called ferroconcrete or ferro-concrete, is a composite material in which concrete's relatively low tensile strength and ductility are compensated for by the inclusion of reinforcement having higher tensile strength or ...

, as part of the expansion of Brunel College into Brunel University, and was designated as a Grade II listed building in 2011. It was used to depict the Ludovico Medical Facility in the 1971

Stanley Kubrick Stanley Kubrick (; July 26, 1928 – March 7, 1999) was an American filmmaker and photographer. Widely considered one of the greatest filmmakers of all time, Stanley Kubrick filmography, his films were nearly all adaptations of novels or sho ...

film ''

A Clockwork Orange ''A Clockwork Orange'' may refer to: * ''A Clockwork Orange'' (novel), a 1962 novel by Anthony Burgess ** ''A Clockwork Orange'' (film), a 1971 film directed by Stanley Kubrick based on the novel *** ''A Clockwork Orange'' (soundtrack), the film ...

''.

History

In the

post-war A post-war or postwar period is the interval immediately following the end of a war. The term usually refers to a varying period of time after World War II, which ended in 1945. A post-war period can become an interwar period or interbellum, ...

period, Brunel University (then Acton Technical College) shifted its focus from training teenagers and apprentices to teaching higher education, especially to ex-servicemen. It gained a positive reputation for its engineering and science courses, and by the end of 1960 the college (now called Brunel College) was aiming to become a college of advanced technology (CAT), which it achieved in January 1962. After the upgrade of Brunel College to a CAT, the

Robbins Report The Robbins Report (the report of the Committee on Higher Education, chaired by Lionel Robbins) was commissioned by the British government and published in 1963. The committee met from 1961 to 1963. After the report's publication, its conclusions ...

proposed upgrading the college to full university status, with a new campus planned to be one of the largest engineering teaching campuses in Europe. The first phase of the new campus included a lecture centre with all

lecture hall A lecture hall or lecture theatre is a large room used for lectures, typically at a college or university. Unlike flexible lecture rooms and classrooms with capacities normally below one hundred, the capacity of lecture halls can sometimes be m ...

s placed in one building, inspired by a building at the

University of Manchester The University of Manchester is a public university, public research university in Manchester, England. The main campus is south of Manchester city centre, Manchester City Centre on Wilmslow Road, Oxford Road. The University of Manchester is c ...

which members of the Brunel Planning Group visited in 1962. The lecture centre was finished in 1966 or 1967, and was a flagship in the group of "Robbins universities" – universities which were being upgraded as part of the Robbins Report. On 23 June 2011, the lecture centre was designated as a Grade II

Historic England Historic England (officially the Historic Buildings and Monuments Commission for England) is an executive non-departmental public body of the British Government sponsored by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. It is tasked with prot ...

. The reasons included its "distinctive, expressive manner" of construction, the high quality of materials used, and its place in the historic importance of Brunel University as a fast-growing

technical college An institute of technology (also referred to as technological university, technical university, university of technology, polytechnic university) is an institution of tertiary education that specializes in engineering, technology, applied science ...

post-WWII.

Description

The lecture centre is a

building made with

. It contains six large lecture halls with capacities of 160 to 200 people each, as well as smaller teaching rooms and lecture halls with capacities of 60 to 80 people, which are located in long corridors across three floors. The box-shaped lecture halls extrude from the building, resting on large columns and beams and separated by

emergency exit An emergency exit in a building or other structure is a special exit used during emergencies such as fires. The combined use of regular and emergency exits allows for faster evacuation, and emergency exits provide alternative means of evacu ...

s. The building has been described as "imposing" and "a brutalist classic", with the expansion of the building as it rises creating "a frightening and effortlessly balanced form". In the official Historic England list entry, the extruding lecture halls were called "strongly expressed" and the north face of the building described as "an expressive centrepiece to the campus."

In popular culture

The lecture centre was used to depict the Ludovico Medical Facility in the 1971 film ''

''. It has also been used for filming projects such as ''

Silent Witness ''Silent Witness'' is a British crime drama television series produced by the BBC that focuses on a team of forensic pathology experts and their investigations into various crimes. The series was created by Nigel McCrery, a former murder squa ...

'' and ''

Inspector Morse Endeavour Morse, GM, is the namesake character of the series of "Morse" detective novels by British author Colin Dexter, a Detective Chief Inspector in the Thames Valley Police in Oxford, England. On television he was portrayed by John ...

''.

References

{{reflist, refs= {{NHLE, num=1400162, desc=Lecture Theatre Block, Brunel University, Cleveland Road, Uxbridge, Hillingdon (London Borough), grade=II, access-date=14 June 2024 {{cite journal , last1=Imani , first1=Elena , last2=Imani , first2=Samira , title=Brutalism: as a preferred style for institutional buildings in modern architecture period , journal=E3S Web of Conferences , date=2021 , volume=231 , doi=10.1051/e3sconf/202123104001 , page= , doi-access=free {{cite web , last1=Abbott , first1=Joshua , title=Suburban masterpieces: modernism in London's edgelands – in pictures , url=https://www.theguardian.com/cities/gallery/2018/jun/05/suburban-modernism-metroland-london-architecture , website=The Guardian , access-date=14 June 2024 , date=5 June 2018 {{cite web , last1=Bricheno , first1=Toby , title=London's Top Brutalist Buildings , url=https://londonist.com/2012/05/londons-top-brutalist-buildings , website=Londonist , access-date=14 June 2024 , date=24 May 2012 , archive-date=29 September 2023 , archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230929004241/https://londonist.com/2012/05/londons-top-brutalist-buildings , url-status=live {{cite book , last1=Topping , first1=James , title=The beginnings of Brunel University: from technical college to university , date=1981 , publisher=Oxford University Press , location=London; New York , isbn=9780199201167 , url=https://archive.org/details/beginningsofbrun0000unse , access-date=15 June 2024 , pages=251–266 Grade II listed buildings in the London Borough of Hillingdon Brunel University of London Uxbridge Brutalist architecture in London