Cambridge University

No one is exactly sure when the University of Cambridge came into being, but it is generally thought to date from about the start of the 13th century.

In 1209, a group of scholars came to settle in the city after being driven out of Oxford by rioting townsfolk -"town-gown" discord was common in those days. The scholars soon took to Cambridge, and established a thriving academic community.

But it was more than 70 years before the first of the city’s colleges, Peterhouse was founded - and more than a century before Cambridge was formally recognised as a seat of learning. In 1318, a Papal Bull declared that Cambridge was a studium generale - a place of general learning.Peterhouse was founded by the then Bishop of Ely, Hugh de Balsham. He wanted to create a place where monks could be instructed in the ways of the church, and he installed a group of them in a building attached to Cambridge’s Hospital of St John. Later, the bishop got hold of two houses near the city’s southern boundary, and moved the monks into them. Tithes from St Peter’s Church were used to pay for the upkeep of the fledgling college, and so it became known as St Peter’s, or Peterhouse.

In the first half of the 14th century, a string of other colleges sprang up - Clare in 1338, Pembroke in 1347, Gonville in 1348, Trinity Hall in 1350, and Corpus Christi in 1352. In 1441, Henry VI, then aged only 19, founded King’s, a massive edifice that took nearly a quarter of the medieval city’s area.

Nine more colleges followed by the end of the 16th century, among them Queens’ (1448), Jesus (1496), St John’s (1511), Trinity (1546) and Emmanuel (1584). As the colleges grew, so did the university. The Old Schools, its administrative centre, was set up in 1350. In the 1700s, the Senate House, its main meeting hall, was built.

There was no proper college for women until 1869, when Girton was created.

Today there are 32 colleges. Cambridge is a collegiate university, which means each college is a separate, self-governing entity. They have their own clubs, their own traditions - even their own colours. Girton is now a mixed college, and the only single sex colleges are now Newnham, New Hall, and Lucy Cavendish (for graduates and mature students).

The university exists as a separate body too, its main role being to teach, to promote research, to hold examinations and to confer degrees. It has a wide range of faculties and departments covering everything from architecture and art to oriental studies and veterinary medicine.

To those who built the colleges, money was no object. Rich patrons - kings, queens, bishops, nobles - bought huge tracts of land and spent vast amounts on creating buildings that would stand forever. Only the best was good enough - the best materials, the best craftsmen, the best architects. Sir Christopher Wren, for example, designed many college chapels.

The university’s students, too, were the best - the great and good who have left an indelible mark on history. Sidney Sussex College’s most famous student was Oliver Cromwell. Jesus College’s alumni included writer Lawrence Sterne, poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge, and Archbishop Thomas Cranmer, compiler of the English Prayer Book. In more modern times, the college has played host to Prince Edward as student - and his brother Charles went to Trinity.

But today Cambridge has two universities to further its academic reputation. Anglia Polytechnic University, formerly Anglia Polytechnic, not only has a campus in Cambridge, but in Colchester, Norwich, Chelmsford and Brentwood too.

Notable University Colleges:

Peterhouse

Founded by the Bishop of Ely, Hugh de Balsham, Peterhouse is the oldest of all the Cambridge colleges; the Great Hall is the only original part of the structure remaining from the thirteenth century, and even this was heavily restored just over a hundred years ago.

Other signs of the College’s medieval, religious, lineage include statues of the founders, and plaques that would have warned the earliest students and staff, mostly clerics, to "adopt the clerical dress" at all times - a far cry from today’s more casual garb of jeans and tee-shirts!

Peterhouse is located on Trumpington Street, next to the Fitzwilliam Museum.

Trinity Hall

If Gonville and Caius College could be described as the medical college, "Tit Hall" can certainly be described as a lawyers’ college. This is because it was founded in 1350 by William Bateman, the then Bishop of Norwich, who desperately needed to educate men in the canon law as he had lost over 700 of his priests to the Black Death plague.

Curiously, considering it’s original purpose, it has the smallest chapel of all the colleges. This imbues it with an informal and intimate atmosphere. The chapel was built in 1366, and in the same year, Pope Urban V granted the petition of the Master and Fellows to celebrate Mass and other divine office "in the chapel built and founded within the same".

Every generation has made its contribution to the College. In 1975, provisions were made for a new JCR, Bar, Music Room, Lecture Theatre and Terrace. 1997 saw the completion of a new undegraduate library in Latham Court. Overlooking the river Cam and housing 130,000 books, the Jerwood Library (named after its general sponsor), pictured right, has won a particular acclaim for its design and notable contribution to the Cambridge riverscape.

Trinity Hall stands behind the Trinity Street shops on the river, between Clare and Trinity Colleges.

Trinity College

This is the largest College in both Cambridge and Oxford, and was founded by Henry VIII in 1546, the year before his death.

The most well known of Trinity’s students must be Isaac Newton who graduated in 1661, although there have been twenty-eight Nobel Prize winners that have graduated from this College, and with the current Master of Trinity, Professor Amartya Sen, won the 1998 Nobel Prize for Economics.

Trinity’s Great Court is over two acres square, and tradition states that a student has to try and run around the Court as the clock strikes twelve - luckily for the less fit student, the clock chimes the hour twice, but this is still a distance of 380 yards in less than 45 seconds. This run was immortalised in Chariots of Fire, since when many famous people have attempted this. New students traditionally attempt it (drunkenly) after their Matriculation Dinner when they first arrive.

Kings College

Originally named King’s College of Our Lady and St. Nicholas, the college was founded in 1441 by Henry VI, who laid the foundation stone for the new building.

Although he had planned a small college, in 1445 Henry altered his plans, and raised the number of scholars the College would educate from 12 to 70. This meant the original buildings were too small, and in 1448 Henry chose the site of his extended college. The new site was a central part of Cambridge, covering the parish and church of St. John Zachary, as well as houses and mills.

Henry bought and cleared the site, angering the local population. However, the War of the Roses and Henry’s deposition in 1461 prevented the completion of the new buildings, and it was not until nearly 300 years later than the college finally moved into the premises that its founder had intended.

The most famous part of the college is the Chapel, started by Henry VI and finished by virtue of Henry VII’s will almost 70 years later. Even then, there was still the magnificent stained glass and woodwork to be added, and so it was not until 1544 that the Chapel was finally fully completed.

The King’s College Choir is internationally renouned for its quality, and every Christmas their carol service is televised to the nation.

St Catherine’s College

The religious roots of the University as a whole are illustrated in the name of this college; while other Colleges were named after their founders, this college is named after St. Catherine of Alexandria. Converted through a vision, Catherine was imprisoned after converting people to Christianity.

While in prison she converted the ruler’s wife and soldiers too. The ruler, Maxentius, had his wife and soldiers put to death, and condemned Catherine to be put to death on a spiked wheel. However, the wheel broke, and so Catherine was beheaded.

The college that bears her name is still going strong, however, and numbers John Addenbrooke among its alumni. His bequest of £4,500 in 1719 lead to the founding of Addenbrooke’s Hospital, which is world-famous for pioneering research.

St Catherine’s (or "Catz") is on King’s Parade, next to King’s College.

St John’s College

The College gained it’s name from the thirteenth century hospital, run by the Monks of St. John, that used to stand on the site. St John Fisher was one of the English martyrs, who hailed from Cambridge.

Like Christ’s College, St. John’s was founded by Lady Margaret Beauford, who left provisions in her will for the founding of a college in 1509.

Some of the history of the college can be seen in the timeline of the four Courts, that move from the Tudor First Court through to Cripps Court, that was built as recently as the 1960’s.

St. John’s is also home to the famous "Bridge Of Sighs", so called because students used to sigh as they crossed the bridge on their way to examinations.

Emmanuel College

The site on which this College stands used to house a Dominicon Priory, but was bought for £550 by the Puritanical Lord Mildmay, who was Elizabeth I’s Chancellor.

The College’s chapel was not finished until 1677, and was designed by Sir Christopher Wren.

Emmanuel also has strong links with Harvard, America’s first University, as it was a former graduate of Emmanuel who, in his will in 1638, left half his estate to found a school that went on to become the University that still bears its founder’s name.

Emmanuel has a very central position on Emmauel Street, near the bus station.

Downing College

Founded in 1800 by Sir George Downing, this was the first college built for almost 200 years in Cambridge. The first architect to work on the site was William Wilkins, who favoured a neo-Grecian look, and consecutive architects have continued to keep to this style since, as can be seen from the new library.

The entrance to Downing sits on Regent Street, just opposite the entrance to Parker’s Piece.

Selwyn College

This college was built as a memorial to George Selwyn, who died in 1878. Selwyn not only rowed for Cambridge in the first (now traditional) Cambridge v Oxford Boat Race, but also became the first Bishop of New Zealand.

Selwyn College was exclusively a male preserve until 1976, when it started to admit female students.

Selwyn College stands on the corner of Grange Road and Sedgwick Street, near Newnham College.