This building is one of a number of Leeds University campus post war building that are examples of post-war architectural design as influenced by Le Corbusier, both in their structural design using reinforced concrete and in their clean and sweeping lines used on a grand scale.
In 2010 this group of buildings became Historic England Listed Buildings and the following
extracts give details of the group and this specific building.
"The E C Stoner Building, Computing Building, Earth Sciences/Mathematics Building, Senior Common Room, Garstang Building, Manton Building and Edward Boyle Library, all designed in the 1960s and 1970s by Chamberlin Powell and Bon at Leeds University, are recommended for designation at Grade II for the following principal reasons:
Architectural interest: they are excellent examples of post-war architectural design as influenced by Le Corbusier, both in their structural design using reinforced concrete and in their clean and sweeping lines used on a grand scale; they form a distinctive group, linked stylistically as well as physically, with repeated structural patterns of concrete beams and continuous glazing
Influence: they were highly influential as a model for other university campuses, in their genesis in an overall masterplan based on research into student movements and the use of different facilities. Chamberlin Powell and Bon were an influential and important architectural practice who completed a number of large, high profile projects which both influenced, and were influenced by their work at Leeds
Planning: they represent a coherent attempt to create a rationalised 'megastructure', by linking all the elements with covered walkways, paved areas and a unified design.
Intactness: they have survived largely intact, given the changing needs of the university environment, owing to the flexibility built in to the design of the buildings...
... E C Stoner (physics) (1968), running west-east from the north side of Chancellors Court, has five storeys plus a partial basement level, and fourteen bays. The east end is deliberately left unfinished to allow for the addition of further buildings.
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The Red Route runs along its north side, with stairs to the different levels immediately inside: these have terrazzo flooring and iron handrails. At the centre of the spine are steps rising from the south side and running through and underneath the building, leading to a roadway that runs along the north side.
Some rearrangement of the internal spaces has taken place but the main structure remains, as do original staircases, doors and parquet flooring. The blockwork internal walls retain some original rails designed for the suspension of cupboards or bookcases along the corridors: these survive in some areas of several of the buildings.
Geoffry Powell is credited with the design of this building."
"E C Stoner was born in Esher, Surrey, the son of cricketer Arthur Hallett Stoner. He won a scholarship to Bolton School (1911–1918) and then attended University of Cambridge in 1918, graduating in 1921. After graduation, he worked at the Cavendish Laboratory on the absorption of X-rays by matter and electron energy levels; his 1924 paper on this subject prefigured the Pauli exclusion principle. Stoner was appointed a Lecturer in the Department of Physics at the University of Leeds in 1932, becoming Professor of Theoretical Physics in 1939. Starting in 1938, he developed the collective electron theory of ferromagnetism. From 1951 to 1963, he held the Cavendish Chair of Physics. He retired in 1963.
He did some early work in astrophysics and independently computed the (Chandrasekhar) limit for the mass of a white dwarf one year before Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar in 1931. Stoner calculation was based on earlier work from Wilhelm Anderson on the Fermi gas and on earlier observations of Ralph H. Fowler on white dwarfs.
Stoner also derived a pressure–density equation of state for the stars in 1932. These equations were also previously published by the Soviet physicist Yakov Frenkel in 1928. However Frenkel's work was ignored by the astronomical community.
Stoner had been diagnosed with diabetes in 1919. He controlled it with diet until 1927, when insulin treatment became available."
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