The Lodge, Chemical Labs, Pembroke Street

History of the Lodge

1939

Frederick G Cable, b 1898, resident engineer chemical laboratories (AFS University Laboratories)

Alice M, b 1897

John, b 1925

Jane Barham in Upstairs Cambridge, 1986, writes about her great-uncle Frederick who was chief maintenance engineer of the Department of Chemistry. He took the job in 1925 and was always on standby if there was a problem. Jane describes the family living with a sitting room that had a curved wall on the corner of Free School Lane. There was a tiny garden with a pear tree. When the new Chemistry department in Lensfield Road was opened, the old building was used for Chemical Engineering and Metallurgy. Frederick stayed at this site.

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31 August 1959
Research and experimental work in the University’s Department of Metallurgy in Pembroke Street was brought to a standstill following a serious blaze. Flames came through the roof, two rooms were gutted and a laboratory severely affected. Water used to fight the fire seeped into the basement and caused a great deal of damage to expensive machinery.
Credit: Mike Petty Archive, Cambridge DOWNING STREET & PEMBROKE STREET Scrapbook, references 59 08 31a & b.

10 December 1959
The University’s new Department of Chemical Engineering building in Pembroke Street was opened by the Chairman of Shell. The firm had made a grant of half-a-million pounds and since the first Shell Professor took up his appointment in 1946, 187 students have graduated. They carry out a research programme during their final year instead of a formal laboratory course and already some information of genuine value had been obtained. In its early days the Department was housed in a temporary building in Tennis Court Road before finding a permanent site next to the Cavendish and Zoology Laboratories.
Credit: Mike Petty Archive, Cambridge DOWNING STREET & PEMBROKE STREET Scrapbook, reference 59 12 10a.

16 February 1960
Preparations are being made for the rebuilding of the Department of Metallurgy laboratories in Downing Street, which were destroyed by fire in August. The old building was quite useless for research and the new part will be box shaped and built of steel and concrete fire-proofed to guard against further outbreaks. At the time of the blaze research in metal corrosion ‘of national importance’ was being carried out.
Credit: Mike Petty Archive, Cambridge DOWNING STREET & PEMBROKE STREET Scrapbook, reference 60 02 16a.