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Kettle’s Yard began life in 1957 as three renovated cottages. It become the home of the late John Edge, and his collection of modern paintings and sculpture. In 1966 the University of Cambridge took over the property, and in 1970 Kettle’s Yard was extended by Sir Leslie Martin and David Owers.

Bland, Brown & Cole’s development in 1994 extended the art gallery’s street presence on Castle Hill, welcoming passers-by through a new glazed front screen. By cutting back part of the corner the narrow 1984 façade and removing an awkward flight of steps from the pavement, visitors are drawn up a narrow path to the new gallery entrance and house.

Other improvements included a new education room, a bookshop, new double height gallery space, and updated security and storage. The circulation was rationalised, with gallery spaces linked to provide a sequential route through the exhibits and to give glimpses of the townscape beyond. These improvements enabled the gallery to mount, for the first time, exhibitions of national and international standard.

“The more people that can be enticed by way of the gallery, to view the happy marriage of tradition and Modernism that it embodies, the more converts there will be to an architecture unfettered by stale convention.”

Deborah Singmaster, The Architect’s Journal

Client: Cambridge University Estate Management and Building Service Quantity Surveyor: Edmond Shipway and Partners Structural Engineer: Peter Lambert and Partners Main Contractor: Rattee and Kett Contract Value: £0.5 million Completion: September 1994