one of the younger fellows, Howard Colvin … believed that the new project demanded a “frankly contemporary treatment which would make no concessions to the adjoining buildings except in such matters as scale and material”.

Geoffrey Tyack, Modern Architecture in an Oxford College 1945 - 2005

We wanted something new. You see

There was a kind of playschool

Surety back then, every degree

Counted, every man could rule

A line back to the source, and spin

The other way and see it shoot

In fractal patterns out of his ken,

Upending the official route.

We wanted something new, and we

Would sacrifice most anything

(Well, decorum definitely)

To get our gawky, sky-jostling

Ruck with nature set in knifey

Portland stone. Of course, I know

Time hasn’t widened out the way

We reckoned all those years ago.

You plan for that, allow for that.

I know the building might have housed

The odd careerist democrat

Or two, and yes, we missed

Our chance to make a truly ideal

Hive, a fair organic whole.

That too was calculable.

Facts played their usual role.

What niggles like a buzzing clock

Are certain Belgian sightseers,

How they so leisurely mock

Our bid to level with the stars,

How smiling artisans can stare

Me dead in the eye, ecstatically

Perplexed when I say future.

We wanted something new, you see.