Essex Building Design 1763 Essex Building Design 1763
This drawing appeared in Thurlbourn's Cantabrigia Depicta in 1763, entitled The Grand new river-front at Queen's College. It shows the design of James Essex the Younger for a complete new river range at Queens', including a passage in the centre for the bridge. Only the part shown, and an equal amount around the corner along Small Bridges Street (now Silver Street), was actually built, 1756-1760. The College could not afford such an extravagant style of building, and it exhausted its financial reserves putting up the part that actually got erected. The financial strain was so great that the College entered into a long period of poverty, and was not to put up another significant residential building for 120 years. During the early 19th century, the College was continually having to seek loans in order to keep going, and was obliged to sell its lands east of Queens' Lane to St Catharine's College. Much of Queens' reputation for poverty can be traced to this single building project.
Had this Essex Building actually been built, then the red-brick parts of the President's Lodge alongside the river would have been destroyed, and some of the Long Gallery demolished. This is not the only time that poverty has been a great preserver for the buildings of Queens'.
It must have been obvious by the time that Cantabrigia Depicta was published that Queens' would not be going to finish the building. It so happens that Thurlbourn was James Essex's father in law, and one wonders whether a certain amount of wounded family pride led Thurlbourn to publish this drawing, to embarass the College.