Architects Casson Conder were appointed to advise on the design and layout of the new buildings. They proposed a series of raised buildings around courtyards, only one of which – the ‘Raised Faculty Building’ with its stumpy concrete legs – was ever built.

Although Casson Condor’s original vision was never completed, the Sidgwick Site has acquired buildings by some of the leading British architects of the 20th and 21st century – including two of the most iconic modern buildings in Cambridge.

Stirling & Gowan’s History Faculty, of the mid 1960s, was both a radical and deeply influential building. The sheer walls of the Library, clad in terracotta tiles, create the effect of an open book – with glazing tumbling down the south side.

Facing it is Foster & Partners Law Faculty, completed in 1995, with bright white high-tech steel and glass detailing.

More recent buildings include the Divinity Faculty, with its two circular drums, completed in 2002 by Cullinan Architects; the new School of Criminology, overlooking a courtyard planted with grasses and silver birches; and the new English Faculty at the West Road entrance, completed in 2005. The latter were both designed by Allies and Morrison – the architects who are also responsible for master-planning the latest phase of the Sidgwick Site’s expansion.