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#172764 01/22/08 09:50 AM
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[The term usually describes universities. A redbrick university is one built
in the UK after WWII, as opposed to the older prestigious institutions such
as Oxford and Cambridge.]e.a.

Having had teachers of German at High School, one with an M.A. (Hons) from Cambridge, the other who seldom missed a chance to deprecate his rebrick alma mater, Reading, I have never heard or read the word used to describe anything other than universities. I could look up the OED but really can't be arsed. Does anybody have citations they've come across that use the word outside the varsity context?

latishya #172765 01/22/08 11:06 AM
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in addition to red-brick universities, there've been:

1835 J. ROMILLY Diary 11 Mar. (1967) 70 They are nasty red-brick churches, in the worst stile of 1760. 1916 E. F. BENSON David Blaize v. 101 His horizon and aspirations stretched no farther than this red-brick arena. 1960 J. BETJEMAN Summoned by Bells v. 46 But for me, Less academic, red~brick Chalfont Road Meant great-aunt Wilkins, tea and buttered toast. [OED2]

-joe (gold-bricking) friday

tsuwm #172769 01/22/08 01:18 PM
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In building is there a real difference between redbrick and brownstone buildings? I mean in brickstone there are so many shades of red - red ochre - reddish brown - brown.

BranShea #172772 01/22/08 01:26 PM
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brownstone's made of stone, and redbrick of brick, no?


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Well yes, (did a search) brownstone is sandstone, and brick is from clay.
Next time I'll give a brownstone house a closer look.
Pretty dumb for one who's supposed to use her eyes.

BranShea #172786 01/22/08 06:23 PM
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Funny eh, but I've never heard those expressions. The words red brick are used only when describing a house, or building, made of red bricks, rather than some other shade of brick. It doesn't have any other connotation apart from imparting the colour of a brick used in construction.

I wonder if it is used similarly in the rest of Canada.

latishya #172790 01/22/08 07:02 PM
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Quote:
A redbrick university is one built in the UK after WWII


Anu's got this wrong, hasn't he? For example, Reading mentioned above was founded in 1892, chartered in 1926 - hardly after WWII.

Myridon #172806 01/23/08 01:10 AM
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On a separate note: the IVY in Ivy League refered to the top 4 or "IV" universities: Princeton, Harvard, U. of Pennsylvania, and Yale. Not the plants on the walls of the buildings

Lawrence #172808 01/23/08 02:06 AM
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Originally Posted By: Lawrence
On a separate note: the IVY in Ivy League refered to the top 4 or "IV" universities: Princeton, Harvard, U. of Pennsylvania, and Yale. Not the plants on the walls of the buildings


well, maybe...


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tsuwm #172809 01/23/08 02:16 AM
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No doubt redbrick can be used literally to mean 'made of red bricks' but I've never seen it used otherwise of anything other than universities.

But, pace Anu, I associate it with universities founded in the late 19th century or early 20th century. There was another round of university expansion in the 1960s but I don't think those universities are usually included in redbrick. As it happens, I've been reading David Lodge's "Changing Places", which was written in 1975 and is set in 1969:

"Rummidge, on the other hand, had never been an institution of more than middling size and reputation, and it had lately suffered the mortifying fate of most English universities of its type (civic redbrick): having competed strenuously for fifty years with two universities chiefly valued for being old, it was, at the moment of drawing level, rudely overtaken in popularity and prestige by a batch of universities chiefly valued for being new."


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