Beit:1930s tennis courts and a fine growth of ivy on the Union frontage

Beit:1930s tennis courts and a fine growth of ivy on the Union frontage

This photograph hangs on the back wall of the alcove and shows a very thickly ivy-clad Union Building with only two storeys, as it was prior to the additional storeys being added in 1957. Despite suggestions that this photo might be taken in the 1920s, a bit of detective work reveals otherwise. The photo is taken from a vantage point high up on the south building of the Beit quadrangle which wasn’t in place until 1931. We also note that the clock is in place, high up in the gable. This clock was a retirement present from Professor H Brereton Baker on his retirement in 1932 so this photograph must be taken after that date. The density of the ivy on the building ebbs and flows during this period. Photos from the late 20’s show it reaching the bottom of the first-floor windows and being neatly trimmed to that height. The growth seems to reach its zenith around 1937 when, as in this photograph, some of the first-floor windows were entirely covered, suggesting that this photograph will have been taken around that time. Photos early in the 1940s show the ivy completely removed.

The quad was still set out with tennis courts, and the protective chain-link fencing. Large crowds would assemble outside the fence, looking inwards to watch the sporting contests within. Not only tennis, but even more so netball matches, despite the lack of appropriate netball court markings, were fiercely contested and drew large crowds. Nothing whatever, I’m assured, to do with the sex and the scant clothing of the contestants.

This arrangement of courts remained until 1955 when the contractors moved in to extend the Union Building whereupon the quad became an enormous building site.

Let's look to the right further alonf the back wall for the next hanging in the alcove..........