| Description | Signed minutes of a committee appointed to plan the accommodation and space in the new medical school building at Edgbaston for each department within the Faculty of Medicine. The first meeting was held on 12 October 1933. The building was completed in 1938 so the committee probably did not need to meet after the final meeting recorded in this volume, on 13 October 1938
Membership of the committee consisted of the Pro-Chancellor (Walter Barrow) who was chair; the Treasurer (E. P. Beale); the Vice-Chancellor (Sir Charles Grant Robertson); the Dean of the Faculty of Medicine (Dr Stanley Barnes); and a number of academic staff in the Faculty of Medicine
The committee usually met three or four times a year. A sub-committee was appointed in February 1936 to discuss fixtures and fittings in the new building, as well as utilities and interior decoration, and this group met regularly during 1936 and 1937
The volume has also been used to record minutes of a meeting of the Joint Committee of Hospitals Centre and Medical School, on 10 April 1935. This committee consisted of the Treasurer E. P. Beale in the chair; Harry Vincent; Dr Stanley Barnes,; Captain Stone,; Sir John Robertson; Professor Cramp; Professor Lees; and Mr Julius Frith. The minutes include extracts from minutes of the Buildings committee meeting, which do not survive elsewhere in the University Archives for this period, though earlier minutes of the committee are catalogued at UB/COM/16
Minutes of the Medical School Buildings committee and sub-committee contain substantial information about the University's plans for the new building, and the views of staff in the Faculty of Medicine about their requirements for its functions. Minutes of the first meeting record a statement of Stanley Barnes, Dean of the Faculty of Medicine that 'there was no complete recently built Medical School in this country from which comparisons could be obtained and that we must deal with the matter on our own experience', and cite visits to the United States of America by members of the Medical School as guests of the Rockefeller Foundation, implying that their observations of medical schools there could be used to inform plans for the new building.
Minutes of early meetings of the committee contain discussion about the amount of space to be allocated to each department and the special demands of particular departments for teaching and clinical work. There is also consideration of the need to be able to accommodate influxes of students and to duplicate classes if necessary. The minutes include comparisons between space in the existing medical school buildings at Edmund Street and Great Charles Street, and the floor space required in the new building.
A statement for consideration included with minutes of the meeting held on 9 November 1933 includes reports from each department in the medical school concerning the space allocated and comments on the compatibility between the plans and the work of the department. Specific requirements listed suggest that further alterations would be necessary in the preliminary plans. Further submissions from individual departments are included in response to the schedule, with opposing views set out by different members of academic staff
The committee also discussed methods of heating, electricity and hot water supplies; the need for adequate water pressure to supply water driven vacuum pumps; the system for laboratory benches; and ventilation methods. The minutes contain details about specific requirements for the dissecting room; photographic rooms and dark rooms; centrifuges for pathology and public health; the animal house; and x ray apparatus. Accommodation for lecture theatres and the library is also discussed.
Minutes of the meeting held on 9 January 1936 list tenders for the superstructure. Minutes of the meeting held on 1 October 1936 refer to the Sir Bertram Windle Dissecting Room, to be identified by lettering over the door, and the Joseph Chamberlain Memorial Museum, named following a gift by Sir Charles Hyde. They also mention the commission for carving on stonework over the main entrance, and the selection of William Bloye as sculptor.
Minutes of meetings of the Medical School Buildings sub-committee from 13 February 1936 to 31 March 1938, chaired by E. P. Beale and with Stanley Barnes and academic staff in the Faculty of Medicine as members, contain detailed discussion about the installation of telephones and 'electric bells; the supply of compressed air; flooring; windows; wall finishings; footpaths; lighting in lecture theatres; the change in purpose of rooms; accommodation for cars and cycles; the use of space in the library; steam traps for steam condensate; sanitary fittings; acoustic plaster; wiring, panelling, shelving, and furniture required. There are also details about the use of marble in the entrance hall. Minutes of the meetings held on 12 January 1937 and 4 March 1937 include copies of reports on the ventilation of fume cupboards in the Department of Organic Chemistry at the University of Leeds following inspection of the facilities there. Minutes of the meeting of the sub-committee held on 31 March 1938 include a copy of a report on the Medical School new buildings by C. G. Burton, University Secretary
Minutes of the meeting of the committee held on 5 July 1937 refer to criticism of the space allocated for the students common room, and suggest that lockers could be transferred to the basement of the space below the entrance hall, allowing the proposed locker room to be used as a common room for men. Committee (as opposed to sub-committee) meets again 5 July 1937 but discusses the same issues as sub-committee, including plastering, doors, furniture, electrical work, spirit store. Mentions criticism of students common room accommodation and suggestion that lockers could be transferred to the basement of the space below the entrance hall and to use the proposed locker room as a common room for men. Minutes of the meeting held on 10 February 1938 discuss funding for the requested x-ray apparatus for the Anatomy department and mention arrangements for the removal of the Medical School from Edmund Street, probably in the early morning, due to traffic congestion in Great Charles Street and Edmund Street. The minutes also refer to the formal opening of the Hospitals Centre and the Medical School on 14 July 1938 [postponed to March 1939]
Minutes of the last meeting of the committee, held on 13 October 1938, mention 1 September 1938 as the completion date, and discuss maintenance and facilities matters |