Long Gallery Exterior Long Gallery Exterior
The Long Gallery is the only substantial half-timbered college building in Cambridge. It forms part of the President's Lodge, linking the domestic accommodation along the riverside with offices and studies in Old Court.
We have no record of when the Long Gallery was built, but the best evidence seems to suggest something in the period 1595 - 1602 (Willis and Clark, in their Architectural History of the University of Cambridge are wrong on this point). It is built on top of an older cloister walk dating from the 1490s, and the 12-foot wide Gallery forms jetties on both sides of the cloister walls below. It was originally much more decorative above the roof line than it is now, and we have no record of when the simplification occurred.
The Long Gallery was plain plastered until 1912, when the plaster was removed to reveal the half timbering, and many structural weaknesses were repaired, under the direction of the architect Cecil G. Hare. The fact that the external faces and corners of the woodwork were found to be sawn square indicates that the original builders might have expected the finish to have been half-timbered. The diagonal timbers, and the triangular pediments over the windows are inventions of 1912. Much of the cost of the 1912 work was borne by the President, Dr T.C. Fitzpatrick.
Inside, the first floor level is one continuous room 80 feet long (the Long Gallery itself), affording no opportunity to cross-brace the building internally, an inherent weakness which permitted the building to lean irregularly to the north. By 1923, the plain plaster ceiling of the Long Gallery could adapt no more, and it was replaced by a moulded plaster ceiling designed by the architect Cecil G. Hare, again paid for by Dr Fitzpatrick.
Further structural weaknesses, fractured beams, wet rot, and death-watch
beetle were discovered and remedied during refurbishment 1982-4, under the
direction of architect Peter F. Smith of Ferguson Smith Associates and structural
engineers Eastwood & Partners, both of Sheffield.
The Bats are the Drama Society of Queens' College. Every June they mount an open-air play in Cloister Court, against the background of the Long Gallery. The photograph shows a matinée in progress.