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Carmel College Mongewell, South Oxfordshire, Thomas Hancock, 1960s-70s Carmel College, a Jewish boarding school, was founded in 1948 and moved to Mongewell, South Oxfordshire, in 1953. A home built in 1890-01 by R.S. Wornum served as the school library and offices and a variety of teaching blocks, boarding homes, a dining hall and a synagogue were built nearby. The earliest buildings were designed by YRM, but in 1960 local architect Thomas Hancock was brought in to prepare a masterplan. He designed most of the teaching buildings and the synagogue, built in 1963, which has dale-de-verre glass and sculpture by the Israeli artist Necherniah Azaz. As a whole, the collection of buildings of Carmel College are arranged “some in the manner of a modern university campus, others informal like a village.” Buildings of England, Oxfordshire describes the synagogue as particularly spectacular and successful, being wedge shaped with glass walls on three sides. The roof is supported by four wooden beams, which curve upwards from the entrance to the concrete East wall 50ft in height. This wall is elliptical and flanking it are two narrow panels filled with stained glass by Necherniah Azaz. Most impressive of all, however, is an interesting mixed-use building of a gallery and boathouse designed by Sir Basil Spence and his son John for Julius Gottlieb, a trustee of the school in 1970. The pyramidal gallery was intended for exhibitions of industrial design as well as for works of art, and the complex is one of Spence’s most geometric and brutalist designs. The synagogue, dining hall, amphitheatre (grade II) and the boat house (grade II*) were listed in 1999 at the tender age of 29. All buildings remain at risk as Carmel College closed in July 1997 due to falling admissions and rising costs. The site is now run by a charitable foundation, Exelarch’s, as an educational centre, on a part time basis. The charity is currently selling off teachers’ houses in order to subsidise this loss-making enterprise. The boathouse was used until last year by Oxford University’s boat club but is now awaiting a new user. A plan for redevelopment drawn up by Boisot Waters Cohen Partnership which brought in an international business school to reuse the site while continuing the charitable uses was to be cross-subsidised by the sale of less important dormitory accommodation. This scheme fell foul of the local development plan and local politics, and no clear way forward has been forthcoming. Tim Pitman
Current Status The listed buildings remain under the care of a charity, the Exilarch Education Centre. As yet no new owner has been confirmed and no plans for refit or redevelopment have been available to the Twentieth Century Society. We hope for further news soon and will of course be arguing for a sensitive conversion. Contacts Image credits |
