Queens' College, Cambridge

Queens' College
Location	Silver Street (map)
Full name	The Queen's College of St Margaret and St Bernard, commonly called Queens' College, in the University of Cambridge
Motto	Floreat Domus (Latin)
Motto in English	May this house flourish
Founder	Margaret of Anjou (1448) Elizabeth Woodville (1465)
Established	1448 Refounded 1465
Named for	Margaret the Virgin; Bernard of Clairvaux
Colours
Sister college	Pembroke College, Oxford Ezra Stiles College, Yale
[[Master (college) |President]]	The Lord Eatwell
Undergraduates	490
Postgraduates	270
Website	http://www.quns.cam.ac.uk/
Boat club	http://www.srcf.ucam.org/qcbc/

Queens' College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge, England. It is among the older and larger colleges of the University. It was founded in 1448 by Margaret of Anjou (the Queen of Henry VI). Queens' has some of the most recognizable buildings in Cambridge. The college spans both sides of the river Cam, colloquially referred to as the "light side" and the "dark side", with the Mathematical Bridge connecting the two. Queens' College has been a centre of learning for more than 550 years. Among the alumni of the college are Desiderius Erasmus, Stephen Fry, Lord Eatwell, Abba Eban and T. H. White.

History

The college was founded in 1448 by Margaret of Anjou (the Queen of Henry VI), and refounded in 1465 by Elizabeth Woodville (the Queen of Edward IV). This dual foundation is reflected in its orthography: Queens', not Queen's, although the 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 King 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 A year later the charter was revoked and Andrew Dokett obtained a new charter from the king to found St Bernard's College on the present site of Old Court and Cloister Court.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 King Henry VI granted Margaret of Anjou the lands of St Bernard's College to build a new college to be called Queen's College of St Margaret and St Bernard.

By 1460 the Library, Chapel, Gatehouse and the President's Lodge were completed and the chapel licensed for service. In 1477 and 1484 King Richard III made large endowments to the college, which were later taken away by King Henry VII. Between that time and the early 1600s 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 building and steadily expanded.

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 had to be rebuilt 1778-82.

In 1823 the spelling of the college's name officially changed from Queen's to Queens'. The earliest known record of the college Boat Club dates from 1831. In 1862 the St Bernard Society, the debating club of the college was founded. In 1884 was the first football match played by the college team. Also in 1884, the St Margaret Society was founded.

1980 saw the first woman being admitted to the college.

The College Arms

These arms are those of the first foundress Queen, Margaret of Anjou, which she derived from those of her father Rene, Duke of Anjou, with the addition of a green border for the College. The six quarters of these arms represent the six lordships (either actual or titular) which he claimed. The green border appears to be intended as a difference for Queens' College. These arms are of interest because the third quarter (Jerusalem) uses gold on silver, a combination which is extremely rare in heraldry. The cross potent is a visual pun on the letters Hand I, the first two letters of Hierusalem.

The College Badge

The Badge of Queens' College.

These are not the official arms of the College, but, rather, a badge. The silver boar's head was the badge of King Richard III of England. Richard's wife Anne Neville was the third Queen consort to be patroness of the College. 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. Today, this badge is widely used by College Clubs, and also appears in connection with food or dining.

Buildings and Location

The Gatehouse, as seen from the Old Court.

President's Lodge seen from Cloister Court

Old Hall

Queens' College has some of the most recognizable buildings in Cambridge. It combines medieval and modern architecture in extensive gardens. It sits astride the River Cam, its two halves joined across the river by the famous Mathematical Bridge. The College has some of the most recognizable buildings in Cambridge.

Queens' College is located in the centre of the city. It is the second southernmost of the colleges on the banks of the Cam, primarily on the East bank. (The others — in distance order — are King's, Clare, Trinity Hall, Trinity, St John's, and Magdalene to the north and Darwin to the south.)

President's Lodge of Queens' is the oldest building on the river at Cambridge (ca. 1460). Queens' College is also one of only two colleges with buildings on its main site on both sides of the River Cam (the other being St John's).

Old Court was built between 1448 and 1451. Stylistic matters 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.

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.

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 1778–1782, and battlements were added to it in 1823. This court was formerly the site of a Carmelite monastery founded in 1292, but is now the location of the College Chapel and various fellows' rooms. The present walnut tree in the court stands on the line of a former wall of the monastery, and was a replacement form 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 and consecrated in 1891. It follows the traditional College Chapel form of an aisleless 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 may have originally been part of a set of five paintings, are late 15th Century Flemish, and are attributed to the 'master of the View of St Gudule'. They depict, from left to right, the Agony in the Garden of Gethsemane, the Resurrection of Jesus, and Christ's Appearance to the Disciples.

Essex Building, erected 1756–60, is so named after its builder, James Essex the Younger (1722–1784), a local carpenter who had earlier erected the wooden bridge.

Friar's Court: in response to the college's growth in student numbers during the 19th century, 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. It is flanked on the East by the Dokett Building, designed by C. G. Hare and built in 1912 from thin red Daneshill brick with Corsham stone dressings and mullioned windows. The Erasmus Building completes what it now called 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.

Fisher Building, named after St John Fisher, was erected in 1936 and designed by G.C. Drinkwater. It continued the Queens' tradition of using red brick. The window frames are of teak, and all internal woodwork is oak. It was the first student accommodation in Queens' to lie west of the river. It was also the first building in Queens' to have bathrooms and toilets on the staircase landings close to the student rooms. These were so clearly evident that it prompted an observer at that time to comment that the building "seemed to have been designed by a sanitary engineer".

Cripps Court, incorporating Lyon Court (named after Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon, the Queen Mother), was designed by Powell, Moya and Partners and built in stages between 1972 and 1980. It houses 171 student bedrooms, three Combination Rooms (Junior for undergraduate students, Middle for Postgraduates, and Senior for Fellows of the College) and a bar, three Fellows' Flats, a solarium, Dining Hall and kitchens, a gymnasium, squash courts, various function rooms, a large multipurpose auditorium (The Fitzpatrick Hall) and a creche. It was the benefaction of the Cripps Foundation, and was the largest building ever put up by the College. It enables the College to offer accommodation to undergraduates within the main college site for three years. A fourth floor was added in 2007, providing student accommodation and fellows' offices. Disabled access ramps and security doors were added in 2010.

The Mathematical Bridge

The Mathematical Bridge and the President's Lodge.

Erasmus, a notable alumnus.

Stephen Fry graduated from Queens' in 1981 and is an honorary fellow.

Abba Eban, one of the most influential Israeli politicians

The Mathematical Bridge (officially named the Wooden Bridge) crosses the River Cam and connects the older half of the college (affectionately referred to by students as The Dark Side) with the newer, western, half (The Light Side, officially known as 'The Island'). It is one of the most photographed scenes in Cambridge; the typical photo being taken from the nearby Silver Street bridge.

Popular fable is that the bridge was designed and built by Sir Isaac Newton without the use of nuts or bolts, and at some point in the past students or fellows attempted to take the bridge apart and put it back together. The myth continues that the over-ambitious engineers were unable to match Newton's feat of engineering, and had to resort to fastening the bridge by nuts and bolts. This is why nuts and bolts can be seen in the bridge today. This story is false: the bridge was built of oak in 1749 by James Essex the Younger (1722–1784) to the design of the master carpenter William Etheridge (1709–1776), 22 years after Newton died.

It was later repaired in 1866 due to decay and had to be completely rebuilt in 1905. The rebuild was to the same design except made from teak, and the stepped walkway was made sloped for increased wheelchair access. A handrail was added on one side to facilitate the Queen Mother crossing the bridge on her visits to the college. The ever-present boltheads are more visible in the post-1905 bridge which may have given rise to this failed reassembly myth.

Education at Queens'

Queens' College accepts students from all disciplines. As in all other Cambridge colleges, undergraduate education is based on the tutorial system. The faculty and academic supervisors associated with the colleges play a very important part in the academic success of students. Queens' College ranked 14th of the 31 Cambridge colleges in the 2011 Tompkins Table. Its position since 1997 is 8th.

Student life and college traditions

Despite being an ancient college, Queens' is known for being among the more open and relaxed Cambridge colleges. The college provides facilities to support most sports and arts. There are a variety of clubs ranging from rowing to wine tasting. Queens', as most other Cambridge colleges has very active student societies known as the Junior Combination Room and the Middle Combination Room, which organize various activities for undergraduate and graduate students respectively. The college hosts a lavish May Ball. Florence And The Machine, Bombay Bicycle Club, Alex Clare and Klaxons have played at the event.

Notable alumni

See also Category:Alumni of Queens' College, Cambridge

Name	Birth Year	Death Year	Career
Desiderius Erasmus	1466	1536	Humanist, theologian, philosopher
John Frith	1503	1533	Writer, church reformer
John Lambert		1539	Theologian, heretic
John Whitgift	1530	1604	Archbishop of Canterbury
Thomas Digges	1546	1595	English mathematicin] and astronomer; first to expound the Copernican system in English
Sir Oliver Cromwell	1566	1655	English landowner, lawyer and politician member of the House of Commons
John Hall	1575	1635	Notable physician
John Goodwin	1594	1665	Preacher, theologian and prolific author
Thomas Horton	1603	1649	Prominent leader in the English Civil War, commissioner of the High Court of Justice.
Charles Bridges	1794	1869	Preacher, theologian and writer, leader of the Evangelical Party of the Church of England.
Thomas Hingston	1799	1837	Antiquarian, physician, writer
Alexander Crummell	1819	1898	Priest, African nationalist
Thomas Nettleship Staley	1823	1898	Bishop
Frank Rutter	1836	1937	Art critic, curator, writer, activist
Osborne Reynolds	1842	1912	Innovator in the understanding of fluid dynamics, heat transfer
James Niven	1851	1925	Physician
Charles Villiers Stanford	1852	1924	Music composer
Sir Roland Penrose	1900	1984	Artist, historian and poet, major promoter and collector of modern art and an associate of the surrealists in the United Kingdom.
T. H. White	1906	1964	Writer, best known for his sequence of Arthurian novels.
Sir Arthur Mooring	1908	1969	Knight of the British Empire
Lesslie Newbigin	1909	1998	Bishop, missiologist, writer
M. S. Bartlett	1910	2002	Statistician; made significant contributions to the analysis spatial and temporal patterns
Cyril Bibby	1914	1987	Biologist, one of the first sexologists
Arnold W. G. Kean	1914	2000	Pioneer of civil aviation law
Abba Eban	1915	2002	Israeli diplomat and politician
Kenneth Wedderburn	1927		British politician, member of the House of Lords
Peter Redgrove	1932	2003	Poet
David Hatch	1939	2007	BBC Radio executive
Richard Dearlove	1945		Head of MI6
Lord Eatwell	1945		British economist
Derek Lewis	1946		Chief Executive of the UK Prison Service
Stephen Lander	1947		Head of MI5
Richard Hickox	1948	2008	Conductor of choral, orchestral and operatic music.
John E. Baldwin	1949		Pioneer of radio astronomy
Graham Swift	1949		Author
Awn Shawkat Al-Khasawneh	1950		Prime Minister of Jordan
John McCallum	1950		Canadian politician and academic
Charles Leslie Falconer, Baron Falconer of Thoroton	1951		Lord Chancellor, Secretary of State for Justice
Nicholas Campion	1953		Cultural historian
Paul Greengrass	1955		Writer and film director
Michael Foale	1957		Astrophysicist and astronaut
Stephen Fry	1957		Comedian, writer, actor, novelist
John Sherrington	1958		Auxiliary Bishop-elect of Westminster
Andrew Bailey	1959		Executive Director and Chief Cashier of the Bank of England.
Peter Jukes	1960		Author, playwright, literary critic
David Ruffley	1962		Member of Parliament
Tom Holland	1968		Author and historian
Sam Lotu-Iiga	1970		New Zealand Member of Parliament
Emily Maitlis	1970		Newsreader and journalist
Liz Kendall	1971		Labour Party frontbench politician
Vuk Jeremić	1975		Serbian Minister of Foreign Affairs
Khalid Abdalla	1980		Actor known for United 93, Kite Runner and Green Zone
Mark Watson	1980		Comedian, novelist
Lindsay Ashford			Journalist and novelist, the first woman to graduate from Queens' College
Lucy Caldwell	1981		Novelist and playwright
Simon Bird	1984		Actor in E4 comedy series The Inbetweeners
Hannah Murray	1989		Actress in award-winning teenage series Skins

List of royal patrons

The college enjoyed royal patronage in its early years. Then, after a 425 year break, Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon, became the college patron. Since 1926 Queen Elizabeth II has been a patron of the college.

Name	Dates	Note
Margaret of Anjou	1429 - 1482	Queen consort of France, Queen consort of England
Elizabeth Woodville	1437 - 1492	Queen consort of England as the spouse of King Edward IV
Anne Neville	1456 - 1485	Princess of Wales as the wife of Edward of Westminster and Queen of England as the wife of King Richard III
Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon	1900 - 2002	The Queen Mother, Queen consort of King George VI
HM Queen Elizabeth II	1926 -

List of Presidents

Name	Dates	Notes
Andrew Dokett	1448–1484	English churchman and academic
Thomas Wilkynson	1484–1505	Vicar and Rector of Harrow, Middx., of Orpington, Kent., of Wimbledon, Surrey, of Ecton, Northants, Dean of Shoreham, Kent, Canon of Ripon.
John Cardinal Fisher, Martyr and Saint	1505–1508	Catholic Bishop of Rochester; executed by Henry VIII for refusing to accept him as head of the Church of England in 1535, canonised in 1935. Namesake of the Fisher Building.
Robert Bekensaw	1508–1519	English churchman and academic
John Jenyn	1519–1525	Cleric
Thomas Farman	1525–1527	Rector of All Hallows, London. Early Reformer.
William Frankleyn	1527–1529	English churchman, dean of Windsor
Simon Heynes	1529–1537	Theologian. Early reformer.
William May	1537–1553, 1559–1560	Theologian and dean of St Paul's Cathedral; his report saved the Cambridge colleges from dissolution under Henry VIII
William Glyn	1553–1557	Also Bishop of Bangor
Thomas Pecocke	1557–1559	Theologian
John Stokes	1560–1568	Also Archdeacon of York
William Chaderton	1568–1579	Later Bishop of Chester and Bishop of Lincoln
Humphrey Tindall	1579–1614	Theologian
John Davenant	1614–1622	Later Bishop of Salisbury
John Mansell	1622–1631	English churchman, theologian, philosopher
Edward Martin	1631–1644, 1660–1662	Sent the college silver to King Charles I; imprisoned in the Tower of London by Oliver Cromwell; escaped, recaptured and released; restored to presidency under Charles II
Herbert Palmer	1644–1647	Puritan and member of the Westminster Assembly; installed as President by Cromwell
Thomas Horton	1647–1660	Theologian; removed by the restoration of the monarchy
Anthony Sparrow	1662–1667	Later Bishop of Exeter and Bishop of Norwich
William Wells	1667–1675	Archdeacon of Colchester
Henry James	1675–1717	Theologian
John Davies	1717–1732	Philosopher, Churchman
William Sedgwick	1732–1760	Philosopher
Robert Plumptre	1760–1788	English churchman and academic
Isaac Milner	1788–1820	Mathematician, an inventor. Lucasian Professor of Mathematics
Henry Godfrey	1820–1832	English academic
Joshua King	1832–1857	Lucasian Professor of Mathematics
George Phillips	1857–1892	Author in Mathematics and Oriental languages
William Campion	1892–1896	British politician and Governor of Western Australia from 1924 to 1931.
Herbert Ryle	1896–1901	Later Bishop of Exeter, Bishop of Winchester and Dean of Westminster
Frederic Henry Chase	1901–1906	Later Bishop of Ely
Thomas Fitzpatrick	1906–1931	Namesake of the Fitzpatrick Hall in Cripps Court
John Archibald Venn	1931-1958	British economist. Son of the logician John Venn
Arthur Armitage	1958–1970	Namesake of the Armitage Room above the Fitzpatrick Hall
Sir Derek Bowett	1970–1982	International lawyer
Lord Ernest Oxburgh	1982–1988	Eminent geologist and geophysicist
Sir John Polkinghorne	1988–1996	KBE; FRS; physicist and theologian; extensive writer on science-faith relations; Templeton Prize 2002; member of General Synod
Lord John Leonard Eatwell	1997 –	Baron Eatwell; member of the House of Lords; previously chief economic adviser to Neil Kinnock and chairman of the British Library; Opposition Spokesman for the Treasury in the House of Lords.

In popular culture

T.H. White's novel Darkness at Pemberley is initially set in a thinly disguised Queens' College, called St Bernard's College.

References to personalities at Queens' can be detected in Stephen Fry' works.

College officials

Refer to:

• Fellows of Queens' College, Cambridge
• List of Presidents of Queens' College, Cambridge

See also

• The Queen's College, Oxford
• List of organ scholars
• Queens' College Chapel Choir, Cambridge

External links

• Queens' College website
• Queens' College Student Union (JCR)
• Queens' College Graduate Student Union (MCR)
• The College's larger list of eminent alumni