A new league table of some of UK HE’s tallest structures

We’ve previously published a definitive ranking of the world’s tallest university buildings. It remains a controversial league table and the subject of regular challenge by people with too much time on their hands. That ranking though failed to include any UK university buildings. We just aren’t ambitious enough in this country it seems.

It seemed time therefore to try to compile a top 10 of UK university buildings by height. To make it a little more interesting though we are going to ignore the rules for the international rankings which require such buildings to have an occupiable height that is 90% devoted to classroom, research, and educational administration use. Student residential accommodation does not count under international rules. However, we are not the kind to follow all the pesky rules about this kind of thing and therefore we’ve sought to be inclusive. You will therefore find a number of unusual buildings in the list. They may not be easily useable as teaching space or for offices but they are part of a university so that’s just fine.

Excitingly, the tallest university building on our list also heads up the ranking of the greatest university clock towers. Let’s see the top 10 tallest UK university buildings then:

Rank	Building	University	Height
1	Joseph Chamberlain Memorial Clock Tower	University of Birmingham	100 m
2	Lovell Telescope	University of Manchester	89m
3	London College of Fashion	University of the Arts London	85.5m
4	University Tower	University of Glasgow	85m
5=	Arts Tower	University of Sheffield	78m
5=	University College Hospital	UCL	78m
7	Broadcasting Tower	Leeds Beckett University	69.5m
8=	Wills Memorial Building	University of Bristol	68m
8=	Towers Hall	Loughborough University	68m
10	Senate House	University of London	64m

Our winner then is indeed a clock tower. Also known as Old Joe it is also the world’s tallest freestanding clock tower. Its design is based on the Torree del Mangia campanile in Siena and believed by many to have been the inspiration for the tower of Isengard in Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings Trilogy. Whatever, it is the tallest university building in the UK. For now.

We do know that before long there will be a new leader of the pack here. Cirrus Point in Leeds is a HUGE 45-storey, 134-metre development that, when it opens, will become the world’s tallest purpose-built student accommodation (PBSA) development and the tallest building in Leeds. But it’s not open yet so doesn’t count.

Second place then is occupied by an even more unusual, the Lovell Radio Telescope at Jodrell Bank Observatory in Cheshire, part of the University of Manchester. It’s big.

The newest building in the top 10 is the College of Fashion at the University of the Arts London. Based in Stratford this 17 floor vertical campus looks really impressive. Let’s see how the architects describe it:

Needing to accommodate, and be appropriately scaled, for both individual work and larger group activities and fully exploit the benefits of bringing all departments together, the circulation and shared spaces at the heart of the building’s organisation were designed to actively encourage planned and incidental interaction, exploration and a sense of shared identity.

Square in plan, the building’s structural stability derives from a simple rectilinear column grid that delineates a central circulation route. At this ‘heart’ are the building’s fixed elements: vertical circulation; lifts; and WCs. In cross-section, through the layering of different configurations, the heart becomes a singular, yet ever changing, interconnected vertical space that links the building’s generous entrance hall and public functions at its lower levels – the auditorium, gallery, cafe and library – to the workshop and teaching floors at its middle and the refectory, drawings studios, roof terraces and support functions at its upper levels.

Lovely.

There are some other grand buildings in the top 10 including Senate House, a favourite of many, and Glasgow’s Tower, pictured below:

Which tall university building is your pick?