Buildings & history

‘The College of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Saint John the Evangelist, and the Glorious Virgin Saint Radegund’ is our correct and original title, but it is not one that lends itself to either memory or letterhead, so perhaps it was with foresight that the founder, John Alcock, Bishop of Ely, desired the College to be known by its alias, Jesus College.

The College was built around an old convent, whose buildings, centred on the Chapel and Cloister Court, date from the 12th century. It seems, from the records of the time, that, although their patron, St Radegund, was claimed to have been a ‘glorious virgin’, the same may not have been true of the nuns of her order, and the general state of ill repair and repute led Bishop Alcock, in 1496, to dissolve the convent and establish in its place a College for a Master, six Fellows, and ‘a certain number of boys’. Alcock ordered the Hall and the Chapel to be remodelled, and the Gate Tower to be built at the end of the pathway which led to the west door of the Chapel in the days of the convent. This path is still known as ‘The Chimney’ from the French word ‘chemin’. The Bishop left his most memorable legacy in the form of the Alcock arms (three roosters – a rather tenuous Tudor play on words), which is still the College crest, and everywhere in evidence in iron, paint and stone.

The Chapel dates from about 1140 and is the oldest College building in Cambridge. It retains a unique atmosphere despite considerable alteration in accordance with successive artistic vogues. Most recently it was ‘restored’ by the Pre-Raphaelites, Morris and Burne-Jones, who provided a painted ceiling and transept glass. This romanticised work sets a series of nicely rouged seraphim against the more serious structure of the convent church, and, although the contrast is great, the overall effect is powerful, with each style retaining its integrity.

First Court preserves a continuity of style despite its representation of many periods. The eastern range, containing Upper Hall and the Old Library, was adapted from the convent buildings, while the Gate Tower and south range are of the 15th century. The court was completed in 1638 by the addition of C and D staircases. It was in one of the sets of rooms on D that the poet Coleridge lived when at Jesus.

The Hall, with a fine open timber roof, and panelling and embellishment added in 1703, is an excellent example of a late Stuart formal interior, whose grandeur seems at times in the past to have aroused gastronomic expectations sadly disappointed by the food served. Arthur Gray, who later became Master, entered the College in 1870: “The Hall in those days”, he writes, “had a stone floor and, not being heated, was deadly cold … frozen gravy and caterpillars supplied with the vegetables were the principal constituents of our diet …” A year later the students demanded “properly cooked meat from the usual joints of recognised animals”. A wooden floor and central heating now ensure that the temperature of the gravy is at least variable.

Pump, Second and Chapel Courts continue in Tudor style with only slight variations in detail. The Carpenter Building in Chapel Court was built in 1885 as the College increased its undergraduate numbers. When this range was completed, criticisms were made concerning the choice of brick, which seemed too bright to harmonise with the muted reds of the older buildings.

This remained a problem until Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch (Fellow 1912-44) suggested painting the walls with a solution of manure to encourage moss. One wall was covered, but little resulted except an excessive stench. It was only after a sweltering Easter Term that the Master subordinated aesthetic considerations to humanitarian, and ordered the walls to be scraped. They remain brazenly orange.

North Court, built in 1964, is an open L-shaped block that lies in the orchards beyond Pump Court. As a piece of modern architecture it is imaginative and interesting, and it represents a bold break from the quiet style of the rest of the College. It has recently been refurbished, converting all its rooms to en-suite.

The tradition of building has continued with the completion of the magnificent Quincentenary Library in 1996, the opening of a new residential building in Library Court in 2000, and the addition of a subtle extension to the historic cricket pavilion, providing a much needed upgrading of changing facilities, in 2004.

Recent development of the College grounds has not been restricted to its buildings, however. Over the past decade our gardening staff have been developing a nature trail within College, inspired by a Samuel Taylor Coleridge poem of 1792, which describes a glorious walk around the College grounds. The ditch separating the College from Jesus Green now houses a fish nursery where rare sticklebacks live. Bird and bat boxes hang in many of our trees, and hedgehog boxes lurk in the thick undergrowth. Woodpiles for beetles and slugs ensure that the hedgehogs are well fed. Although locating cricket balls struck over the boundary now takes longer, this is a small price to pay for the enjoyment brought by having such a rich variety of flora and fauna on our doorstep. Many Cambridge Colleges can claim ducks as part of the scenery, not so many feature woodpeckers, pheasants and newts.

The College grounds are in many ways different from others in Cambridge. The external courts are all large and well ordered, built from a variety of differently hued bricks, and, having buildings on three sides only, open out on broad expanses of the College grounds. The effect is restful and as informal as any institutional buildings can be, and, despite the liveliness of the place in term-time, one feels that Jesus has not quite lost touch with its monastic origins. King James I was heard to comment: “Were I to choose, I would pray at King’s, dine at Trinity, and study and sleep at Jesus.”