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college of the University of Cambridge
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Queens' College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Queens' is one of the 16 "old colleges" of the university, and was founded in 1448 by Margaret of Anjou. Its buildings span the River Cam with the Mathematical Bridge and Silver Street connecting the two sides.
College alumni include Desiderius Erasmus, who studied at the college during his trips to England between 1506 and 1515. Other notable alumni include author T. H. White; Israeli politician Abba Eban; founding father of Ghana William Ofori Atta; news presenter and journalist Emily Maitlis; actor and writer Stephen Fry; author and long-term BBC Rome and Vatican correspondent David Willey the Governor of the Bank of England Andrew Bailey; the British members of Parliament Stephen Kinnock, Liz Kendall and Suella Braverman; and Fields Medallist James Maynard. The college's first Nobel Prize winner is Sir Demis Hassabis who received this award in 2024 for developing artificial intelligence models.
It is a registered charity and as of June 2024, the college held non-current assets valued at £197 million. The current president of the college is British diplomat Dame Menna Rawlings, previously the British Ambassador to France. Past presidents include a number of notable figures, including the Catholic martyr John Fisher.
Queens' College was founded in 1448 by Margaret of Anjou and refounded in 1465 by the rival queen Elizabeth Woodville. This dual foundation is reflected in its orthography: Queens', not Queen's. Its full name is "The Queen's College of St Margaret and St Bernard, commonly called Queens' College, in the University of Cambridge".
In 1446 Andrew Dokett obtained a charter from Henry VI to found St Bernard's College, on a site now part of St Catharine's College. A year later the charter was revoked and Dokett obtained a new charter from the king to found St Bernard's College on the present site of Old Court and Cloister Court. In 1448 Queen Margaret received from her husband, King Henry VI, the lands of St Bernard's College to build a new college to be called "Queen's College of St Margaret and St Bernard". On 15 April 1448, Sir John Wenlock, chamberlain to Queen Margaret, laid the foundation stone at the south-east corner of the chapel.
By 1460 the library, chapel, gatehouse and President's Lodge were completed and the chapel licensed for service. In 1477 and 1484 Richard III made large endowments to the college and his wife, Anne Neville, became the third queen to be patroness of the college, making endowments on her own behalf, which were all taken away by Henry VII after he overthrew Richard. Between that time and the early 17th century, many improvements were made and new buildings constructed, including the Walnut Tree Building, which was completed in 1618. Since then the college has refurbished most of its old buildings and steadily expanded.
In the early 17th century Queens' had become a very fashionable college for the gentry and aristocracy, especially for those with more Puritan leanings.
During the English Civil War the college sent all its silver to help the King. As a result, the president and the fellows were ejected from their posts. In 1660, the president was restored.
In 1777, a fire in the Walnut Tree Building destroyed the upper floors, which were rebuilt 1778–82. In February 1795 the college was badly flooded, reportedly waist-deep in the cloisters.
In 1823, the spelling of the college's name officially changed from Queen's to Queens'. The earliest known record of the Queens' College Boat Club dates from 1831. In 1862, the college's debating club, the St Bernard Society, was founded. In 1884, the first football match was played by the college team and the St Margaret Society, the music society, was founded.
In 1980, women were admitted as members for the first time, with the first female graduates in 1983.
The arms are the paternal arms of the first foundress queen, Margaret of Anjou, daughter of Rene, Duke of Anjou, with a difference of a bordure verte for the college. The six-quarters of these arms represent the six lordships (either actual or titular) which he claimed. These arms are of interest because the third quarter (Jerusalem) uses or (gold) on argent (silver), a combination which breaks the rule of tincture of "no metal on metal" in heraldry. The cross potent is a visual pun on the letters H and I, the first two letters of Hierusalem.
The silver boar's head is not the official arms of the college, but, rather, a badge; a white boar was the badge of Richard III. The earliest evidence of the college using a boar's head as a symbol is from 1544. The gold cross stands for St Margaret, and the gold crozier for St Bernard, the two patron saints of Queens' College. There is also a suggestion that the saltire arrangement of these (like the St Andrew's Cross) is an allusion to Andrew Dokett, the first president of Queens'. Today, this badge is widely used by college clubs, and also appears in connection with food or dining.
Queens' is the earliest example of a complete purpose-designed college in Cambridge. The original building, which now constitutes Old Court, incorporates all necessary components of a medieval college in a single building: residences, dining hall, kitchens, library, and chapel. There are, of course, older colleges, some having absorbed older non-collegiate buildings, and older collegiate buildings, but none of those were built as a complete college from the outset. Unlike many colleges, which in the 18th century clad their buildings in classical stone and transformed their Gothic windows into rectangular sash windows, Queens' could not afford to, therefore leaving Old Court as one of the best-preserved medieval assemblages in the city.
Today, Queens' College has some of the most recognisable buildings in Cambridge. It combines medieval architecture and modern architecture in extensive gardens. It is one of two Cambridge colleges whose core buildings straddle the River Cam (the other being St John's). The two halves are joined across the river by the Mathematical Bridge. The two banks are colloquially referred to as the "light side" and the "dark side". Queens' College is located to the south of the centre of the city. It is the second southernmost of the colleges on the banks of the River Cam, primarily on the east bank.
The President's Lodge of Queens' is the oldest building on the river at Cambridge (c. 1460). The President's Lodge is part of Cloister Court: the Cloister walks were erected in the 1490s to connect the Old Court of 1448/9 with the riverside buildings of the 1460s, thus forming the court now known as Cloister Court. Essex Building, in the corner of the court, was erected 1756–60, named after its builder, James Essex the Younger (1722–1784), a local craftsman who had earlier erected the Mathematical Bridge.
Old Court was built between 1448 and 1451. Stylistic features suggest that this was designed by and built under the direction of the master mason Reginald Ely, who was also at the same time erecting the original Old Court of King's College (now part of the University Old Schools opposite Clare College), and the start of King's College Chapel. Whereas King's was built using very expensive stone, Queens' Old Court was made using cheaper clunch with a red brick skin. Queens' was finished within two years, whereas King's Old Court was never finished, and the chapel took nearly a century to build.
The War Memorial Library is the present student library. The War Memorial Library was formerly the original chapel, part of Old Court. It was named in honour of Queens' College alumni and members who died in service in the Second World War. Before the 1940s, the student library was the present Old Library.
The Old Library was built in 1448, part of Old Court, and situated between the President's Lodge and the original chapel. It is one of the earliest purpose-built libraries in Cambridge. It houses a collection of nearly 20,000 manuscripts and printed books. It is especially notable because nearly all printed books remain in their original bindings, because Queens' has never been wealthy enough to afford re-binding all the books in a uniform manner, as was the fashion in the 18th century. It is also notable because it contains the earliest English celestial globes, owned once by Queens' fellow of mathematics Sir Thomas Smith (1513–1577), and because its medieval lecterns were refashioned into bookshelves, still present today.
Walnut Tree Court was erected 1616–18. Walnut Tree Building on the east side of the court dates from around 1617 and was the work of the architects Gilbert Wragge and Henry Mason at a cost of £886.9s. Only the ground floor of the original construction remains after a fire in 1777, so it was rebuilt from the first floor upwards between 1778 and 1782, and battlements were added to it in 1823. This court was formerly the site of a Carmelite friary, Cambridge Whitefriars, founded in 1292, but is now the location of the college chapel and various fellows' and students' rooms. The walnut tree in the court stands on the line of a former wall of the friary, and was a replacement of an older one in the same position after which the court was named.
The college chapel in Walnut Tree Court was designed by George Frederick Bodley in 1886, built by Rattee and Kett and consecrated in 1891. It included new stained glass by C.E. Kempe. Today's chapel follows the traditional college chapel form of an aisle-less nave with rows of pews on either side, following the plan of monasteries, reflecting the origins of many colleges as a place for training priests for the ministry. The triptych of paintings on the altarpiece panel are late-15th-century Netherlandish, and are attributed to the 'Master of the View of Saint Gudula'. They depict, from left to right, the Agony in the Garden of Gethsemane, the Resurrection of Jesus and Christ's Appearance to the Disciples and may originally have been part of a set of five paintings.
The college experienced a growth in student numbers during the 19th century, bringing with it the need for additional student accommodation. The President's second garden was taken as the site for new student accommodation called Friars' Building, designed by W. M. Fawcett and built in 1886. The building, named after the Cambridge Whitefriars, accommodates 52 students and fellows.
Friars' Building is flanked to the East by the Dokett Building. Dokett Building was designed by Cecil Greenwood Hare and built in 1912 from thin red Daneshill brick with Corsham stone dressings and mullioned windows. It stands on the former site of almshouses which were maintained by benefaction from a former President of the college Andrew Dokett. The almshouses were demolished in 1911 to make way for the new building. On demolition of the almshouses, a fund was made available for payment of pensions – always to eight women — in accordance with the will of Dokett. In 2014, Dokett Building underwent major restorations, with the majority of the bricks in the building being replaced and the rooms being reconfigured. In 2019, railings were restored to the Queens' Lane elevation of Dokett Building. These railings were based on the original design of the railings outside Dokett Building in 1912, but at a lowered height to preserve sightlines from groundfloor windows. This building is largely occupied by second and third years, along with some fellows.
The Erasmus Building completes Friar's Court on the West. It was designed by Sir Basil Spence and erected in 1959, and is notable for being the first college building on the Backs to be designed in the Modernist tradition. The modern design of the building generated some controversy and the project encountered strong resistance at the time. It was officially opened by the Queen Mother in June 1961. The lawn in front includes a crown bowling green laid out in the 16th century.
Cripps Court, incorporating Lyon Court (named after the Queen Mother), was designed by Sir Philip Powell of Powell & Moya and built in stages between 1972 and 1988. It was described by Stephen Gardiner as "easily the best piece of modern architecture by a British architect anywhere." In brutalist style it houses a bar and gymnasium with squash courts, 171 student bedrooms, three fellows' flats, a solarium, dining hall and kitchens, various function rooms, a large multipurpose auditorium (The Fitzpatrick Hall) and three combination rooms (Junior for undergraduate students, Middle for postgraduates, and Senior for fellows). It was the benefaction of the Cripps Foundation and the largest building erected by the college. A fourth floor was added in 2007, providing student accommodation and fellows' offices.
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