Discussions about a site for Robinson College were taking place as early as 1972. The letters shown here [Archive ref. RCRF 3/1] debated the possibility of the old Addenbrooke’s Hospital (now the Judge Institute) and a site owned by Gonville and Caius College on Queen’s Road. Other suggestions included Clarkson Road, Barton Road, St John’s Kitchen Garden, and Grange Farm at the end of Adams Road [Archive ref. RCTR 8/4/1/2]. The eventual sale by St John’s College to the Robinson College Trustees of the Grange Road site was completed on 8 October 1975 [Archive ref.

Outline of proposed Chapel exterior, sketched by Andy MacMillan, architect, in 1977. The sketch is accompanied in the Archive by a letter from Andy MacMillan to John Piper, 9 November 1977, in which he says he encloses ‘some sketches I did during a rather boring meeting recently which explore a little further an idea that the building [ie the Chapel] and parts of the building like the door would show through behind, as it were, the decoration’. MacMillan’s annotation reads ‘lead covered door recessed in moulded brick architrave corbelled above’. [Archive ref. RCPP Bugg 5/6]