University of Nottingham

University of Nottingham at Nottingham, England; established 1881 as University College, Nottingham. It received its charter as a university in 1948. It has faculties of agricultural science, arts, engineering, education, law and social sciences, medicine, and science.

Nottingham County town of Nottinghamshire, situated on the river Trent, and a city since 1897. It is first recorded as one of the ‘five boroughs’ of the Danes, succeeded by an English fortified town (burh) after 921. In the 12th and 13th cents. it became a regional centre with self‐government, town walls, and a major fair. After the Restoration the town became a social centre for the county gentry. Industry developed after 1700 with framework‐knitting, and later lace‐making, and the town grew rapidly. In the 20th cent. it was known for tobacco, bicycles, pharmaceuticals, and a distinguished university.

O'Rorke, Brian (1901–74). New Zealand-born architect, he was best known for his Modernist interiors from the 1930s, including the liner Orion (1934–5) and the Mayor Gallery, London (1933). He was appointed Architect of the National Theatre to be erected in London, but the project was abandoned (Lasdun's National Theatre was erected on a different site and to a much expanded brief). At Derby Hall, University of Nottingham (early 1950s), however, he used a stripped-down Classical manner derived from the work of Soane that influenced McMorran & Whitby in their work for the same University.

Bibliography

personal knowledge; Pevsner (ed.), BoE, Nottinghamshire (1979)