Exeter’s Jackson Library wins Preservation Trust award
Exeter College’s newly transformed Jackson Library has won the Oxford Preservation Trust award for Building Conservation. Exeter received the Trust’s highest level of award, a Building Conservation Plaque, with four institutions, including The Queen’s College and the University of Oxford, receiving certificates.
The conservation of the Victorian library, now named the Jackson Library to honour the father of principal benefactor and Exeter alumnus William Jackson (1983, Geography), included repairs to historic stonemasonry, windows, roofs and bookcases. The project also involved sensitive refurbishment, removing unsympathetic 20th-century interventions, creating extra study space and making the library fully accessible for the first time.
Since 1927, the Oxford Preservation Trust has been dedicated to preserving Oxford’s history and working towards a positive future. This is the second time in recent years that Exeter has won a Preservation Trust award, with the refurbished Porters’ Lodge and College entrance awarded the Small Project Plaque in 2022.
The Jackson Library is also shortlisted for the Higher Education project of the year prize at this year’s Architects’ Journal (AJ) Architecture Awards, which will be announced in December.
Originally constructed in 1857, the Library has had its original Victorian Gothic features restored and been made fully accessible, with a lift that services all floors, step-free entrance, and a wheelchair accessible toilet. The Library’s striking architecture has been preserved and restored, revealing original features, some of which had been hidden for decades. The stonework, woodwork and oak bookcases have been restored, and where there is new woodwork, such as in the new mezzanine floor in the Library annexe, outstanding craftsmanship has ensured that it is of the highest quality throughout and sympathetic to Gilbert Scott’s vision. Lighting, ventilation, heating and electrics have all been significantly upgraded as well, while maintaining the Library’s much-loved appearance and character.
The transformation of the Library has proved enormously popular with students, and was made possible thanks to the generosity of alumni and supporters of Exeter College. Together they gave over £8 million to the project, hitting the ambitious fundraising target and creating an exceptional study space for generations of students to come.
You can read more about the transformed Library and see pictures in the noted architectural publications The RIBA Journal, The Architects Journal, Architecture Today, and Dezeen.
Photos by Will Pryce
