Geograph - photograph every grid square

Dunelm House opened in 1966 (the year before this photo was taken) and houses the Durham Students' Union. It must then have been one of the largest students' union buildings in the country. Opinions tended to be Marmite-like: you either loved it or hated it. (My own view, for what it is worth, is that it is hardly a thing of beauty, but as brutalist buildings go it is one of the best-designed and interesting of them.)

Access from the cathedral and older parts of the university is by the splendid Kingsgate footbridge, seen here high above the River Wear (see also NZ2742 : Kingsgate Bridge, Durham).

Fifty years later the University sought permission to demolish it, partly because it was too small(!). The debate rumbled on for five years, but in 2021 Dunelm House was listed Grade II and so saved.