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The Wills Memorial Building is situated near the top of Park Street on Queens Road in Bristol, United Kingdom. It is one of the landmark buildings of the University of Bristol and currently houses the Faculty of Law and the Department of Earth Sciences, as well as the Law Library. Architecture commentator Nikolaus Pevsner described it thus:
- "a tour de force in Gothic Revival, so convinced, so vast, and so competent that one cannot help feeling respect for it."
History
The Wills Memorial Building was commissioned in 1912 by George Albert Wills and Henry Herbert Wills, the tobacco magnates, in honour of their father, Henry Overton Wills III, benefactor and first Chancellor of the University. Sir George Oatley was chosen as architect and told to "build to last". He produced a design in the Perpendicular Gothic style, to evoke the famous university buildings of Oxford and Cambridge.
Construction was started in 1915 but was halted in 1916 due to the continuation of World War I. Building was restarted in 1919, and the Wills Memorial Building was finally opened in 1925 by King George V and Queen Mary, having cost a total of £501,566 19s 10d. Oatley received a knighthood that same year in recognition of his work on the building.
During World War II, the Great Hall was badly damaged by a German bomb-blast in 1940, and was restored in the 1960s.
The facade is currently undergoing an extensive restoration project, so the building is completely enshrouded with scaffolding.
Features
The building's dominant feature is Wills Tower. The tower is reinforced concrete faced with Bath and Clipsham stone, with carving designed in collaboration with Jean Hahn of King's Heath Guild, Birmingham. It is 215 feet (66 metres) high and is topped by an octagonal lantern which houses Great George, England's fourth-largest bell. It features many gargoyles, which caricature contemporary members of the University's staff. In addition to the Great Hall there is a General Library, Reception Room and Council Chamber and another 50 rooms including some teaching space such as seminar rooms and lecture theatres.
Further reading
Whittingham, S. Wills Memorial Building (Bristol, 2003)
References
"Wills Memorial Building"