Key 72: Modern Languages - Germanic Studies 1951; Italian 1975; Russian 1977; / New Arts ('Babel') Building 1946-1957

A.R. Chisholm had been on the staff since 1921 when he was promoted to foundation professor or French and head of modern languages in 1938. He had first introduced the study of Italian which became a separate department in 1962; C.A. McCormack was appointed foundation professor in 1975.

Dr Augstin Lodewyckx had been in charge of Germanic Studies from 1915 to 1947 and in that time introduced Dutch, Icelandic, and German Philology. In 1951 Richard H. Samuel was appointed foundation professor of Germanic Studies, adding Swedish to the course from 1962.

Russian was introduced in 1946 by Nina Christesen, and R.D. Sussex was appointed foundation professor in 1977.

A new building to accommodate the post-war expansion of the Arts Faculty, especially the foreign language subjects, was commenced in 1946 but due to postwar shortages was not fully completed until 1957. In 2001 the refurbished building was occupied by the Faculty of Economics and Commerce (but retained its traditional name 'Babel').