Tucked away at the edge of Downing College's East Lodge Garden in Cambridge, sitting alongside the manicured lawns and neoclassical architecture, is an unassuming Edwardian stable building. Formerly serving as a maintenance shed and largely forgotten, the modest stables were reopened this week with an altogether more pivotal role on campus as the Heong Gallery, a new public space dedicated to modern and contemporary art.
Conceived as an inviting threshold between the hustle and bustle of Cambridge's Regent Street and the centre of the College grounds, the Heong Gallery, according to Downing College master, Professor Geoffrey Grimmett, is a way of integrating Downing into the local community. 'The Art Gallery is something different because it doesn't just look in, it looks out,' says Grimmett. 'This is a public art gallery with free access so it's not only something that is exciting for the student body and the fellowship, but it's also going to bring the community in who wouldn't necessarily be drawn to Cambridge colleges.'
Architecture practice Caruso St John was tasked with the transformation, which included the creation of a new tree-dotted courtyard space and the entranceway to Parker House, a former office building adjacent to the stables, which was recently refurbished to accommodate 78 smartly-appointed graduate student rooms and eight common rooms.
Inspired by Kettle's Yard – the nearby Cambridge University-owned art gallery which was formerly the home of art collector Jim Ede and his wife Helen – Adam Caruso was intent on creating a modest gallery space within Downing's majestic context. 'The transformation of Jim Ede's old house illustrates the possibility of a modest structure coexisting with the grand architecture of the colleges and housing a space where study, conversation and art naturally come together. This modesty and feeling of easy access is about an intimacy in scale, and is also about building in a certain way.'
Inside the gallery, Caruso achieves this sense of domesticity through a clever selection of materials and finishes; natural oak window frames, doors and furniture are complemented by a floor of dark, encaustic tiles made in Ironbridge. Two generous glazed screens in the foyer, which feels much like a living room with its original cast iron fireplace, look out across the courtyard to the east and across the East Lodge Garden to the west. From here a double doorway leads visitors into the main gallery space, where the ceiling height doubles, and a single long roof light cut into the stable's pitched roof draws the eye upwards.
Fittingly, late 1950s and early 60s paintings taken from the personal collection of Sir Alan Bowness – including works by Patrick Heron, Peter Lanyon, William Scott and Allen Jones – are currently on show, while plans underway for an Ai Weiwei exhibition and a show of contemporary African Art in the coming year.
The gallery is dedicated to modern and contemporary art, and is a public space with free access to all
The architects wanted to create a space with a sense of domesticity, to contrast the college’s overarching grandeur
To achieve a homely intimacy, the team worked with natural oak window frames, doors and furniture and a floor of dark, encaustic tiles made in Ironbridge
INFORMATION
’Generation Painting 1955–65: British Art from the Collection of Sir Alan Bowness’ is on view until 22 May. For more information on the project, visit the Heong Gallery’s website
Photography: Ioana Marinescu
ADDRESS
Heong Gallery
Downing College
Cambridge, CB2 1DQ
-
The bespoke Jaguar E-Type GTO melds elements from every era of the classic sports carECD Automotive Design’s one-off commission caters to a client who wanted to combine the greatest hits of Jaguar’s E-Type along with modern conveniences and more power
-
Casa Sanlorenzo debuts in Venice as a new hub for contemporary artThe luxury yachting leader unveils a stunning new space in a palazzo restored by Piero Lissoni – where art, innovation, and sustainability come together
-
Once vacant, London's grand department stores are getting a new lease on lifeThanks to imaginative redevelopment, these historic landmarks are being rebonr as residences, offices, gyms and restaurants. Here's what's behind the trend
-
Lubaina Himid and Magda Stawarska’s new show at Kettle’s Yard will uncover the missing narratives in everyday life storiesThe artists and partners in life are collaborating on an immersive takeover of Kettle’s Yard, Cambridge, in an exhibition that delves into a lost literary legacy
-
See the fruits of Niki de Saint Phalle and Jean Tinguely's creative and romantic union at Hauser & Wirth SomersetAn intimate exhibition at Hauser & Wirth Somerset explores three decades of a creative partnership
-
Caroline Walker's new show speaks to women everywhere, including me'Everything related to my life with young children, because it's such an all encompassing experience,' the artist says of her new show at the Hepworth Wakefield
-
Cassi Namoda is rethinking stained-glass windows at Turner Contemporary in MargateThe artist drew from an eclectic range of references when considering the traditional medium for a Turner Contemporary window overlooking the beach – she tells us more
-
Meet the Turner Prize 2025 shortlisted artistsNnena Kalu, Rene Matić, Mohammed Sami and Zadie Xa are in the running for the Turner Prize 2025 – here they are with their work
-
The art of the textile label: how British mill-made cloth sold itself to Indian buyersAn exhibition of Indo-British textile labels at the Museum of Art & Photography (MAP) in Bengaluru is a journey through colonial desire and the design of mass persuasion
-
From counter-culture to Northern Soul, these photos chart an intimate history of working-class Britain‘After the End of History: British Working Class Photography 1989 – 2024’ is at Edinburgh gallery Stills
-
Surrealism as feminist resistance: artists against fascism in Leeds‘The Traumatic Surreal’ at the Henry Moore Institute, unpacks the generational trauma left by Nazism for postwar women
