Peterhouse Ward Library, Cambridge

Client – Peterhouse College
Date of Completion – 2005

The 1880’s Champneys conversion of a row of brick warehouses into the Museum of Classical Archaeology was acquired by Peterhouse in 1984 and formed into the college library.  However the Central Gallery area, between the Ward Library reading room and the Lubbock Room, remained unconverted and unused and in 2002 Freeland Rees Roberts won the competition to extend the library into this area.  The top-lit gallery was Grade II listed and the College needed it to house 20,000 books, 20 readers and up to 10 computer spaces.   The blocked portico from the existing reading room was opened up connecting the area with the rest of the library and a new mezzanine floor was created.  In addition tons of soil were excavated from below the Ward Library to create new college storage facilities and the original Ward Library rooms were redecorated.