Queens' College, Cambridge

Map

Open this map at Google Maps

Wikipedia

Colleges of the University of Cambridge Queens' College
College name	The Queen's College of Saint Margaret and Saint Bernard in the University of Cambridge
Motto	Floreat Domus (Latin: May this house flourish)
Founders	Margaret of Anjou (1448) Elizabeth Woodville (1465)
Named after	Saint Margaret the Virgin Saint Bernard of Clairvaux
Established	1448
Location	Silver Street
Admittance	Men and women
President	The Lord Eatwell
Undergraduates	490
Graduates	270
Sister college	Pembroke College, Oxford
Official website
Boat Club website

The Gatehouse, as seen from the Old Court.

Queens' College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. It was first 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 in the University of Cambridge.

Queens' 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.)

The 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 Cam (the other being St John's).

[edit] The Mathematical Bridge

The Mathematical Bridge connects the older half of the college (affectionately referred to by students as The Dark Side) with the newer half (The Light Side). 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 in 1749 by James Essex the Younger (1722–1784) to the design of William Etheridge (1709–1776), 22 years after Newton died. It was later rebuilt in 1866 and 1905, albeit to the same design. It was never disassembled, as the weight of the students on the bridge would cause it to collapse.

[edit] Notable alumni

President's Lodge

The Cloister Court, with the Long Gallery on the left.

Erasmus, a notable alumni

See also Category:Alumni of Queens' College, Cambridge

[edit] College officials

See also Category:Fellows of Queens' College, Cambridge

[edit] List of Presidents

While the head of most colleges are called Masters, the head of Queens' College has been called the President since 1448. Below is the list of Presidents that have served the college:

[edit] See also

• The Queen's College, Oxford

[edit] External links

• Queens' College website
• The College's larger list of eminent alumni

This text was last fetched from this Wikipedia page (where you can edit it) on
8 Jul 2008, 5:07pm under the terms of the GFDL.

Annotations

• N Jeremy on Wed 26 Feb 2003, 11:48pm

  Queens’ Cambridge is distinguished from Queen’s Oxford by the position of its apostrophe nowadays. Not sure whether the same applied then. Queen’s Oxford refers to but one queen, while Cambridge has more. It is also not as affluent as its more well off namesake in the other place.

• N Grahamt on Thu 27 Feb 2003, 09:34am

  Queen’s Oxford after Queen Philippa
  Queens’ Cambridge after Queens Margaret of Anjou and Elizabeth Woodville

• N Grahamt on Thu 27 Feb 2003, 09:39am

  The apostophe after the s was first used in 1823 and became official in 1831. In Pepys’ time it would have had the same - Queen’s - spelling as the Oxford college. See:
  http://www.quns.cam.ac.uk/Queens/Misc/apostrophe.html

• N language hat on Thu 27 Feb 2003, 03:25pm

  Apostrophe madness
  from the amazingly detailed page Grahamt came up with:

  “The formal corporate title of the College is now:

  “The Queen’s College of St Margaret and St Bernard, commonly called Queens’ College, in the University of Cambridge.

  “which shows both forms of spelling. This is formally correct. The name of the college when qualified by the patron saints is spelt in the singular; the short-form name is spelt in the plural.”

  Great find, Grahamt!

References in the diary

1660

Feb: 26