Talk:Trinity Great Court

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[edit] King's Gate

A guide once told me that the King's Gate, used to stand a couple of feet further into the courtyard. When the other sides of the Great Court were complete, the college wanted to move the gate back a little, in order to make the court square. However to do this they needed to move it onto a couple a feet of St John's College land.... and this is why the clock strikes the hour twice — once for Trinity and once for John's.

Is this story true? If so, does anyone know what year the gate was moved. -- Solipsist 12:22, 4 Oct 2004 (UTC)

It is true. King Edward's Gate (the one with the clock) was part of the buildings of King's Hall, and located approximately where the sundial is now. When Nevile created Great Court, he moved the gate to its present location. The gate was moved in 1599-1600.

The story about St John's College land is false - King's Hall (one of the two colleges that was merged into Trinity) was located to the north of the old gate. Some of the King's Hall buildings still survive as King's Hostel.

For maps of Trinity before / after Great Court was built, see http://homepage.ntlworld.com/pbolchover/trinity/ -- Bluap 10:06, 10 Jan 2005 (UTC)

The story I've been told about the clock striking twice is something to do with some decree that said there could only be a certain number of bells in that part of Cambridge - Trinity already had one but installed a second to stop St. John's getting one, hence the hour strikes twice. How true that is I don't know. Alaeangelorum 18:10, 18 October 2006 (UTC)