Views of Clare
Sir: Many of us who hated the idea of the new Clare College library and the effect it was obviously going to have on Scott's impressive Memorial Court/University Library vista, have been, in the upshot, agreeably surprised by the effect of the finished building.
The library has been designed most sensitively to fit into Scott's concept, echoing many of its features without slav- ish imitation or pastiche of its detail — a perfect 1980s analogue to his Art Deco. Although, inevitably, the openness of the vista from the entrance to Memorial Court through the Queens Road gateway has been lost, the height has been carefully judged so that the University Library tower remains visible from there over the exact centre of the Clare library roof — to my mind, an equally impressive, though obviously different, vista. The view in the other direction, from the University Lib- rary entrance towards Memorial Court, seems to me to have been enhanced by the handsome new building.
I wonder, out of interest, whether Gavin Stamp has actually been to Cambridge since the rebuilding, and seen the new library in situ.
Michael Grosvenor Myer
34 West End, Haddenham, Cambridgeshire
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