Trinity Great Court

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Trinity's Great Court looking north, showing the King's Gate, Chapel, Fountain and the Great Gate

Great Court is the main court of Trinity College, Cambridge, and reputed to be the largest enclosed court in Europe.

The court was completed by Thomas Nevile, master of the college, in the early years of the 17th century, when he rearranged the existing buildings to form a single court.

Starting in the northeast corner at E staircase, in which Isaac Newton had his rooms, and moving clockwise, one first reaches the Porters' Lodge and Great Gate, begun in 1490 as the entrance to King's Hall and completed in 1535. The Great Gate is home to the famous statue of founder Henry VIII whose sceptre was replaced by a chair leg by students in the 19th century. Next comes the East Range, and staircases F-K (with J omitted out of tradition) that contain the college bursary and rooms principally housing fellows of the college. Staircase I leads to Angel Court, containing rooms for students and fellows, and to the college bar.

Trinity's main entrance, the Great Gate, leading to the Great Court

The South Range runs from staircases L-Q with rooms for students and fellows, with Queen's Gate (named after Elizabeth I) as its centrepiece. R staircase can be found in a passage leading to New Court, while S staircase is on the left in the passage leading past the Hall into Nevile's Court. The West Range is dominated by the Great Hall, the college's dining hall modelled on that of Middle Temple, and the Master's Lodge.

The fourth side begins with staircases A-C, before reaching King's Gate (also called Edward III Gateway), and the entrance to the oldest part of the college, the remaining surviving buildings of King's Hall. King's Gate also houses the famous clock that chimes every 15 minutes and strikes the hour twice. Originally built on the site of the current sundial in the middle of the court, Nevile moved it 20 metres north when completing the court.

Trinity Great Court noon chime (file info) — play in browser (beta)
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In the centre of the court is an ornate fountain, built during Nevile's time, and traditionally fed by a pipe from Conduit Head in west Cambridge.

1 The Great Court Run
2 The Chapel
3 Dimensions
4 External links

[edit] The Great Court Run

Many have tried to run the 367 metres around the court in the 43 seconds that it takes to strike 12 o'clock (actually 24 chimes due to an odd old tradition), a feat recreated in the 1981 film Chariots of Fire (though filmed in Eton College not Trinity). Known as the Great Court Run, students traditionally attempt to complete the circuit on the day of the Matriculation Dinner. The only people believed to have actually completed the run in time are Lord Burghley in 1927 and Sebastian Coe when he beat Steve Cram in a charity race in October 1988. Though this latter claim is common misbelief.

Sebastian Coe's time on 29 October 1988 was reported by Norris McWhirter to have been 45.52 seconds, but it was actually 46.0 seconds (confirmed by the video tape), while Cram's was 46.3 seconds. The clock on that day took 44.4 seconds (i.e. a "long" time, probably two days after the last winding) and the video film confirms that Coe was some 12 meters short of his finish line when the fateful final stroke occurred. The television commentators were more than a little disingenuous in suggesting that the dying sounds of the bell could be included in the striking time, thereby allowing Coe's run to be claimed as successful.

It should be noted that the above account is in conflict with that on Trinity College's website, which states:

"In October 1988 the race was recreated for charity by Britain's two foremost middle-distance runners, Sebastian Coe and Steve Cram. Daly Thompson, the decathelete, was a reserve. Coe won, getting round in 42.53 seconds. Alas, he didn't quite beat the chimes, as the clock had been wound the day before, and the chimes ran somewhat faster than their usual 43 seconds because of the extra turn of rope on the drum."

In recent years there have been one or two seeming 'near misses'. An explanation for this comes from the fact that since 2003 the introductory chimes (i.e. the several notes struck before the actual 24 chimes) of the clock have been included in the race time whereas traditionally it is only after the first actual chime that the senior tutor would drop his handkerchief and the race would begin on contact with the floor. This means that the race time had actually extended by 3 or 4 seconds in recent years

In 2001 the race was won by Adrian Hemery, son of the famous 400m hurdler and Olympic Champion David Hemery. Adrian was succeeded by his friend and training partner Mike Collins in 2002.

Recent winners: 2001: Adrian Hemery 2002: Mike Collins 2003: Huw Watson (AUS) 2004: Calum Nicholson 2005: Chris Wilson 2006: Dany Gammall

It is interesting to note that the two men who are reckoned to have achieved the Great Court Run, David Cecil and Sebastian Coe, both achieved the triple distinction of Olympic Champion, Member of the House of Lords, and Chairman of London Olympics Organising Committee (David Cecil, 1948 Olympics; Sebastian Coe, 2012 Olympics).

[edit] The Chapel

The final part of the court is completed by the chapel, begun by Mary I in 1554 in memory of her father. The ante-chapel contains statues of many famous Trinity men, including Roubiliac's sculpture of Isaac Newton, and the altarpiece is Benjamin West's St Michael and the Devil.

The chapel contains a fine organ built by the Swiss firm of Metzler in 1975 - one of only two instruments by this respected maker in Great Britain. It is contained within the restored late seventeenth-century case built by perhaps England's most famous organ builder "Father" Smith. The Metzler organ incorporates some surviving pipes from this instrument.