Cambridge University Library 2012-03-02

Arrived at Cambridge University Library promptly around 3.30. Obtained library card without difficulty--I was the only person being processed in the admissions office at the time. Got into the manuscripts room without difficulty, although there are fairly stringent requirements relating to materials that can be brought in (no stationery, no objects even in clear plastic bags, etc.), so I had to park this stuff in a locker outside the reading room, and bring in just camera, this laptop, and power cord and power supply (power cord hung from neck; power supply in pocket; laptop and camera in hand). Four volumes of the Baldwin papers were pulled for me--it appears the Baldwin papers are kept in perfect-bound volumes--and I am to be given them one volume at a time, it seems. Each individual volume seems to span multiple file references. I am simply photographing interesting material as I go along, instead of preparing file write-ups, since time for consultation is short. The main exception is a file dealing with Waterloo Bridge and a plan to remove the Charing Cross railway bridge which I am not photographing because it is a scheme-level file with no relevance to motorway design policy.

D.3.11

This file concerns ministerial (including Prime Ministerial) involvement in the ongoing failure to agree and carry out necessary rehabilitations to Waterloo Bridge within the context of a plan for cross-Thames bridges involving removal of the Charing Cross railway bridge, widely considered unbearably ugly. The file includes two separate schemes for preservation and reconditioning of Waterloo Bridge, the first of which is in two parts (one part being essentially an engineering report and the second part being an appreciation of historical qualities, it seems to me). Both parts of the first are perfect-bound and professionally printed, while the second is typescript, but both are fairly extensively illustrated. This file also includes a letter to the editor ('Times') from Rees Jeffreys, urging that cross-Thames river crossings within London become the subject of a central government inquiry.