5.1.13

Object

Representation ID: 30691

Received: 01/09/2015

Respondent: Mr Simon Lock

The modification of the exterior of such a significant building as the old cavendish laboratories seems misguided. This is one of the most scientifically significant buildings in the world. It should be preserved to as great a degree as possible as a lasting monument to the achievements achieved within its walls and the systems of scientific learning established there.

Support

Representation ID: 30702

Received: 02/09/2015

Respondent: Dr William Tobin

Boris Jardine's article in The Guardian alerted me to the proposal to improve pedestrian access to the Old museums Site by piercing the back wall of the oldest part of the Old Cavendish Laboratory (the East Wing).
While recognising and approving of the respect for heritage, and feeling that there is insufficient respect for scientific and industrial heritage, my belief is that we must not let the past stiffle the present. So long as "existing window openings [are] sensitively adapted and possibly enlarged" this seems to me an appropriate compromise between past and present.

Object

Representation ID: 30703

Received: 03/09/2015

Respondent: Dr Boris Jardine

Alterations to the Old Cavendish should be kept to an absolute minimum. The building is one of the very first purpose-built scientific laboratories in the country, and as such is amongst the most important scientific buildings in the world. There is a huge body of historical scholarship that backs up this statement. The benefit of opening the site up at the north end is not at all clear -- one stated intention is to 'reveal buildings of interest', but this cannot be justified if the main 'building of interest' on the entire site is disfigured.

Comment

Representation ID: 30705

Received: 04/09/2015

Respondent: Rachel Engler

I do not support new entrances on Pembroke Street and Free School Lane. The current entrances are adequate for pedestrians and cyclists. Both streets are part of the few visually appealing streets left in the city centre. The proposal that new entrances would be sensitive to historical surroundings is vague and easily ignored in today's planning environment. The B'enet Street and Corn Exchange entrances could be widened and made the main public entrances. There are more pedestrians in that area anyway. The Whipple Museum main entrance could be in the new courtyard which is proposed.

Object

Representation ID: 30713

Received: 02/09/2015

Respondent: Prof Wilson Poon

Paragraph suggests that the development merely destroys an 'almost blank and very plain back wall of the [old] Cavendish Laboratory'. But on the other side is an ivy-covered frontage that is undoubtedly one of the world's most iconic scientific buildings. It is unclear how nearby buildings will be affected, notably the Mond Laboratory. Destroying this heritage is vandalism on a par with what ISIS is doing elsewhere right now. As a senior academic, I understand the need for space. But it should be possible to satisfy these needs without irreparably damaging the integrity of one of the top 10 historic scientific sites in the world.

Object

Representation ID: 30714

Received: 02/09/2015

Respondent: Paul Davey

As I understand it, the plan is to go through the ground floor of the Cavendish Lab. This is poor treatment of such an historic building. As regards its listed status, although the back wall is "very plain" and might not be a great loss, the opposite wall where the route would emerge is far from being plain.

Object

Representation ID: 30715

Received: 03/09/2015

Respondent: The Rt Hon Patrick Jenkin

I wish to object to the proposals to redevelop part of the original Cavendish Laboratory designed by James Clerk Maxwell.

The Applicants do not appear to recognise that this building is of great historic and scientific significance. Its design and construction in the 19th Century marked a major turning point in the development of science in the world, when scientific research became a matter for the hard, sequential, logical search for provable evidence. James Clerk Maxwell was one of the most significant leaders of this revolution in science.

My interest is that my Great-Grandfather, Prof HC Fleeming Jenkin, the first Professor of Science at Edinburgh, was a close associate of and collaborator with James Clerk Maxwell; their joint work on defining the ohm, for instance, was largely undertaken in this laboratory.
If those who are planning the modernisation of this part of Cambridge University were aware of the truly historic significance of this original Cavendish Laboratory, I feel sure that their otherwise admirable proposals could be largely achieved while at the same time preserving the essential character of the entirety of this original Cavendish Laboratory.

Object

Representation ID: 30716

Received: 02/09/2015

Respondent: Prof Tom McLeish

The paragraph suggests that the proposed development merely destroys an 'almost blank and very plain back wall of the [old] Cavendish Laboratory'. It fails to say is that on the other side of this way is an ivy-covered frontage which is undoubtedly one of the most iconic scientific buildings in the world.

This is the building where the electron was discovered, the atom first split by deliberate bombardment, the structure of DNA discovered. The destruction of this building unique to the highest points of 20th century physics is unacceptable.

Object

Representation ID: 30717

Received: 02/09/2015

Respondent: Mr Dick Middleton

I learned with incredulity that as part of the above development you are planning significant alterations to the Cavendish Laboratory.

This laboratory building is of extraordinary historic value in the context of modern scientific development and progress. It was designed by the somewhat unknown mathematical genius James Clerk Maxwell. Maxwell is man whose insights laid the foundation for all modern physics including radio, x-rays,
light, radio astronomy, quantum physics and so on. Many Nobel Laureates (29
according to the university website) are from the Cavendish laboratory and benefited from Maxwell's work - Rutherford , Crick & Watson (DNA) to name just the best known.

Maxwell was a forward thinker and knew the importance of practical science.
His design for the Cavendish Laboratory was revolutionary and was instrumental in the development of many of the most important 20th century scientists. It is a truly unique and historic building. Possibly one of the most important buildings in Cambridge. It is surely part of the heritage you are trying to preserve.

Please, I strongly object to your plan to develop this building.

Object

Representation ID: 30718

Received: 04/09/2015

Respondent: Dr Adam Hart-Davis

This sounds an absolute disaster. For every scientist in the world the Cavendish Lab represents the most important building in the entire history of science. More Nobel Prizes have come to the Cavendish than to anywhere else on earth.

You cannot destroy this building. It must be preserved.

Object

Representation ID: 30719

Received: 04/09/2015

Respondent: Dr John Reid

The proposals as submitted, though formulated with good intentions, will clearly have detrimental unintended consequences. The original appearance of the building will be altered, as well as incurring the loss of Rutherford's personal laboratory. They should be refused in their present form and returned for further consideration.

The Cavendish Laboratory has iconic status for science and society at large. In a way it is unfortunate for the University and the City that the Cavendish has this iconic status, for with it comes the obligation to consult very widely on proposed changes both internal and external before plans are submitted. This has clearly not been done. The University feels it could do more with the Cavendish Laboratory. Excellent. One example they should study is the sympathetic restoration and re-purposing of their historic laboratories by the University of Coimbra, celebrating 750 years of history. More sympathetic development of the Cavendish than the submitted plans is possible and should be investigated urgently before the tabled, well-meaning but detrimental, proposals are acted on.

Object

Representation ID: 30720

Received: 04/09/2015

Respondent: The Rt Hon Alex Fergusson

I wish to strongly object to the plans to partially demolish the Cavendish Laboratory. As someone who has tried to champion the life, works and achievements of James Clerk Maxwell, whose family estate lies within my Scottish Parliamentary constituency of Galloway and West Dumfries within which he is buried, I believe that he is one of the most understated geniuses in our history. He designed the Cavendish Laboratory and was its first head, and it was under his leadership that the Cavendish spawned what a recent article called 'one of the greatest crop of experimental scientists the world has known'.
This building simply must be preserved. As others have pointed out, "Elsewhere historically insignificant buildings are being kept for no good reason, yet there is perhaps no other scientific building in this country as important as the original Cavendish, perhaps no laboratory as aesthetically pleasing as the Mond. If the university truly wishes to 'create a window into the site's history' they must do it without destroying its most important buildings".
I whole-heartedly concur.

Object

Representation ID: 30723

Received: 06/09/2015

Respondent: James Clerk Maxwell Foundation

This paragraph is highly misleading. Blank, plain wall is not at all blank.
The proposed new entrance would actually involve the destruction of two pairs of windows on opposite sides of the building, together with the historically important site of (Nobel Laureate) Lord Rutherford's personal laboratory!
The Old Cavendish is a building of great historical significance, but this is not reflected in the description.
No destruction to the fabric of this building must be permitted, and consideration should be given to raising its grade. It is incumbent upon both the City and the University to ensure that it is appropriately refurbished to the highest standards and put to a good, scientifically related, use.
To destroy any part of its core fabric may only be described as cultural vandalism, and would also appear to contravene Policy 61 and Policy 62 of the Cambridge Local Plan 2014.

Object

Representation ID: 30724

Received: 06/09/2015

Respondent: Dr Isobel Falconer

The paragraph overlooks the heritage value of this wing of the Cavendish Laboratory, where J J Thomson discovered the electron and the isotopes of neon, Rutherford used alpha particles to probe the structure of the atomic nucleus, and Chadwick discovered the neutron. The new entrance will destroy internal arrangements, including Rutherford's personal laboratory and pre-empt plans for the restoration of the Old Cavendish as a science heritage centre and visitor attraction.

Object

Representation ID: 30725

Received: 07/09/2015

Respondent: Paul Joseph Moore

Clark Maxwell's contribution to modern science cannot be overstated and his lab original design, here under threat, was a groundbreaking departure whose integrity MUST be respected

The epoch-making discoveries made here are widely acknowledged as part Maxwell's legacy, in addition to his own immense contributions. make this a uniquely iconic site.

Maxwell's birthplace in Edinburgh and his home in Galloway were both long neglected but are now being protected and restored. Please see sense and respect his legacy in your own establishment. Would this be considered if the lab were Newton's or Einstein's. Maxwell deserves no less respect.

I feel the use of the word "vital" on the side of the proposed works betrays a bias towards the work and I'd say instead it is VITAL that Maxwell's legacy be respected.

Object

Representation ID: 30726

Received: 07/09/2015

Respondent: Prof. Hasok Chang

I would be very concerned about any plans to demolish any part of the original structure of the Old Cavendish Laboratory. It would be a great irony if an effort to make the New Museums Site more accessible and better known to the public ended up damaging THE most iconic and important historical site in the whole site.

Object

Representation ID: 30729

Received: 07/09/2015

Respondent: Basil Mahon

I agree with Simon Schaffer that "there is, perhaps, no other scientific building in this country as important as the original Cavendish".

Not only was the building designed by one of the greatest scientists who ever lived, the Cavendish's founding director James Clerk Maxwell, it has been the site of some of the most important scientific discoveries, including the electron and the structure of DNA. Among the world-leading scientists who have worked there are Cavendish's second director Lord Rayleigh, its third director J.J. Thomson, and Ernest Rutherford.

It is a historic and irreplaceable building, which should be lovingly restored, not mutilated.

Object

Representation ID: 30730

Received: 07/09/2015

Respondent: Robyn Arianrhod

This iconic laboratory - whose first director and co-designer was James Clerk Maxwell, one of the greatest (and most under-celebrated) geniuses in the history of science - is important to science lovers throughout the world. I would like to see it as a museum celebrating the Laboratory's incredible achievements, but the proposed development would impact not only the front facade but also the original layout and design of what is one of the first purpose-built academic laboratories in the world. Also, perhaps the exterior of the "plain" back wall can be used for an additional display celebrating the Laboratory's proud and colourful history.