Architecture students build igloo
Lyndon Hughes, BArch Architecture (1972), MSc Conservation of Historic Buildings (2005)
Listen as Lyndon Hughes remembers not-so-grim student life in a grand setting and putting his architectural studies into practice at Kings Weston House, Bristol, or read the transcript provided below.
Hello. My name is Lyndon Hughes. I came to Bath University in 1966 studying Architecture there until 1973, returning in the early 2000s to do a master’s degree.
Bath University derived from Bristol Technical College, through various changes to Bristol College of Advanced Technology, based at the old Muller’s Homes in Ashley Down and the Kings Weston Estate. It was intended to build Bristol University of Technology at Kings Weston but planning permission was refused. A site was offered by the Bath Director of Education and in 1964 Bath University of Technology was built at Claverton Down. However, the School of Architecture remained at Kings Weston House until 1970 and so I spent my first four years there. A magnificent setting for Architecture - a Grade1 listed house by Sir John Vanbrugh built in 1712. Period lecture rooms, a grand staircase and the student bar in the basement.
It was a small community of about a hundred students which made for friendly collaboration in many extra-curricular projects. I particularly remember building an igloo after the snows of 1967. It remained long after the rest of the snow had melted.
As the student/staff liaison officer I organised events that took place in the basement and the ground floor, mainly discos but occasionally folk evenings with local artists such as Keith Christmas, who was himself an Architecture student who became well-known on the Bristol music scene, and Fred Wedlock, who had a top twenty recording with ‘The Oldest Swinger in Town’. This all made for an enjoyable four years before we moved to the South Building on the University campus in 1970.