Bridge ‘an aesthetic crime’?
22 October 2013
Dr William Whyte, who lectured on the history of Hertford Bridge at the Centenary celebrations in September, has written a piece on Oxford’s architectural battles for the alumni magazine Oxford Today. He begins:Â
A hundred years ago, Oxford was convulsed by debates about a proposed new university building. It would, claimed some, destroy a much-loved view. It was, alleged others, not just bad in its own right but positively damaging to the city as a whole. “To put it up,” declared Bodley’s Librarian, “would be little short of an aesthetic crime”.Â
The offending item? Our much-photographed Bridge, celebrating its one hundredth birthday this year.Â