| AdminHistory | The College of Building was originally the Department of Building and Architecture of the Liverpool College of Technology, with some early links to the Liverpool Cathedral Masons' School which was established when work began on the Anglican Cathedral in 1904. In 1925, part-time day classes for building trades' apprentices began, with over 500 building apprentices attending the College for one day a week for craft studies and practical workshops.
The Liverpool Education Authority acquired use of the Lord Roberts Memorial Workshops in Fontenoy Street, and subsequently the Drury Buildings in Walker Street for building and other classes in 1937. This building was destroyed by enemy action in May 1941 during the Blitz during one of the worst air raids on the city. During the Second World War, the College provided additional classes to aid the war effort, after which the College of Technology acquired the Oulton School premises on Clarence Street, where the Department of Building and Architecture was transferred. Built in 1899, this had been used as a Pupil Teachers' Training College and mixed Secondary Grammar School. As well as the Department of Building, this also accommodated the Nautical College.
In 1946, the Liverpool Education Commitee began building a new block of workshops on vacant land near the existing Oulton premises on Clarence Street, which opened 23 October 1950. These workshops enabled practical classes in plumbing, heating and ventilation, hard metal and pipe bending, forge and welding shops, wood machinists, plastering, carpentiy and joinery, and vehicle body building. Building Science was also taught, with studies in fabric, mechanics and equipment.
In 1951, the Liverpool Education Authority then decided that because of rapid expansion of work and the need for development, a separate College of Building should be established out of the original College's Department of Building. The College of Building, known locally as the 'College of Bricks,' was founded on 1 April 1951 under its own Principal T E Hall.
The College was organised into two departments: Building & Professional Studies, and Building Trades. In March 1964 the Department of Building Trades renamed to the Department of Building Practice and Supervision, which was directed since 1953 by W M Macqueen. The Department of Building & Professional Services became overloaded by 1962, at which point it split to create a third Department of Architecture and Surveying, directed by J A Haddy. In July 1967, a new Department of Town & Country Planning was formed under A H Roper.
In the early years of the College it was governed by a College of Building Management Comittee, whose Chairman was also Chairman of the Further Education Sub-Committee, and included two representatives of the University of Liverpool. A new Board of Governors was established in 1959, with Councillor (later Alderman) F Walker as Chairman. Three new Advisory Committees began meeting in 1963 for Architecture and Surveying, Building and Engineering, and Building Trades. A Teaching Association was established in September 1958, and in 1961, the College's Students' Union was formed.
Additional expansion of both premises and staff was needed, and the first part of building new accommodation was completed in 1961 as an expansion to the Oulton building. The last phase of expansion was opened on 10 November 1969. In 1970, the College of Building amalgamated into the Liverpool Polytechnic, which later became Liverpool John Moores University in 1992. The College's descendant is now based in the Faculty of Engineering and Technology as the Departments of Built Environment and Civil Engineering, which remained in the Clarence Street building until 2010 when the site was demolished to make way for the University of Liverpool's Redmonds Building. The demolition prompted the Department of Built Environment to move back to Byrom Street into the Cherie Booth Building, which was built in 2006.
For more sources of information on the history of the Liverpool School of Science and its descendants, see:
Webster, R., and Wilkie, S., 2017. The Making of a Modern University: Liverpool John Moores University (London: Third Millenium Publishing), pp.100-103. A copy of this can be made available via LJMU Special Collections & Archives.
LJMUH/CB/2/1/1 Programme for the official opening of the College of Building Phase III with overview of the history of the College, 1969.
LJMUH/CT/3/3/1 Order of proceedings for the opening of new workshops for the Department of Building, 1950, the precursor to the split of the College of Building in 1951. This includes photos of the woodcutting machine shop and the plumbing workshop. |
| CustodialHistory | All of the records in this SubSection were transferred to LJMU's Archives in the early 2000s from Byrom Street with no documentation. There is an unknown number of other records still at the James Parsons building currently on display. |