Around Cambridge: the university town

Cambridge was established first and foremost as a University town, and now has 31 colleges as part of its establishment. These colleges are seen throughout the city, though the oldest ones tend to be clustered in the central area.

The names of the streets in central Cambridge reflect the colleges which are on them. Thus:

St Johns College (below right) is on St Johns Street (below left)





Trinity College (below left) is on Trinity Street (below right)




Kings College (below right) is on Kings Parade (below left)




Jesus College is on Jesus Lane. The College is pictured below leftr, and below right is the so-called Jesus "Lane", taken from our balcony, and featuring one of the buses that run along it all day long!



Jesus College is the nearest neighbour of Wesley House, so Wesley doesn't have a street of its own. But across the street from us is Sidney Sussex College--and it has Sidney Street on one side (pictured below right), and Sussex Street around the corner! And it has wonderful greenery right across the street from our lounge room, for us to look at (below left).



Most of the older colleges have very Christological names, such as Corpus Christi (Latin for "the body of Christ"), Christ, Jesus, Trinity, Emmanuel, etc.

Kings College (sede above) is actually named after the king who founded it (Henry the Eighth) so it is a break with the tradition. And there is a Queens College as well (founded in 1448 by Margaret of Anjou, when she was queen to Henry VI). We don't have a snap of this college, but this photo comes from its website.

Most of the modern colleges are named after their founders, such as Robinson, Newnham, Lucy Cavendish, etc. Some are named after former famous students, such as Darwin. The last group of colleges are named after saints, such as St Johns (already pictured above) and St Catharines (pictured below--and yes, this is the right spelling, and it is more faithful to the Greek word from which 'Catherine' derives).

So we are in the midst of a very saintly and very godly streetscape here!


Elizabeth has decided that Trinity College is her favourite college (despite the name--she never was very strong on this aspect of Christian doctrine!). This is for two reasons.

First, Trinity College’s gateway is one of Elizabeth’s favourites, mainly because it features the name of one of her ancestors, John of Gaunt, over the door. He was one of the six sons of Edward the Second who founded the college. The arms of all six sons are depicted on the gateway to Trinity College.

The fifth son was known as John of Gaunt due to the fact he was born in Ghent, Wales in 1340. He was a contemporary of the religious reformer, John Wycliff, and used his power to protect Wycliff (whom he sympathised with) when Wycliff was being persecuted.

Below: coats of arms for sons 4, 5 and 6; the fourth, Cyril, died as an infant so did not have an actual coat of arms. He just gets an empty shield!

However, the best thing about this particular college entrance is the figure of the king. Instead of holding a sceptre, as intended by the stone mason, he is actually holding a wooden chair leg. The story goes that this was placed in his hands by a group of students playing a practical joke in the 19th century—so the chair leg has been there for a long time!

Second, the origin of one of her favourite desserts -- creme brulee -- is claimed by Trinity College, dating back to the 1600’s. The college claims that it should be called ‘Cambridge Burnt Cream’ or ‘Trinity Cream’ and they have a special branding iron with the official college crest (see below) which is used to burn the sugar top. [And creme brulee is gluten-free, to boot!!]

And, to finish, a view of the courtyard of Wesley House, from our balcony, looking towards the Principal's Lodge. Wesley House is one of a number of associated colleges -- technically, they are "houses" -- which are attached to the university. It is part of the Cambridge Theological Federation and actually teaches some of its degrees through the Anglia Ruskin University, which has a campus on the eastern edge of the city centre.