Central Saint Martins College of Art & Design Southampton Row / Theobald’s Road
As first planned the Central School of Arts & Crafts [note by W E Riley with A Halcrow Verstage of the LCC Architects’ Department for W R Lethaby, the school’s founding Principal in 1907–9] would have had carved lettering on the corner but all that was executed was the original name above the outer entrance doors.
A name change to Art & Design in 1966 was ignored, but in 1989 the college was merged with St Martin’s School of Art and became part of the London Institute. The name placed outside in the early 1990s is an example of how not to do it. As with most corporate identities, this one decrees that all buildings are signed in an identical way regardless of age, history or style.
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Original college name above outer entrance doors on Theobalds Road.
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Elevation to Orange Street (detail) by A Halcrow Verstage, 1903, showing a carved school name on the corner with Southampton Row as well as carvings on the square blocks between the ground floor window openings. Courtesy: Central Saint Martins Museum & Study Collection.
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Elevation to Orange Street (detail) by A Halcrow Verstage, 1903, showing a carved school name on the corner with Southampton Row as well as carvings on the square blocks between the ground floor window openings. Courtesy: Central Saint Martins Museum & Study Collection.
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Current college name in cut-out steel raised off the stonework by steel pins. The lettering is a version of the typeface Baskerville, designed to print books in the mid eighteenth century.
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Current college name in cut-out steel raised off the stonework by steel pins. The lettering is a version of the typeface Baskerville, designed to print books in the mid eighteenth century.
Cochrane Theatre
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The college’s Cochrane Theatre has recently made an uninspired attempt to make itself more noticeable.