King's College, Cambridge
| Colleges of the University of Cambridge King's College |
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| College name | The King's College of Our Lady and Saint Nicholas in Cambridge | |||||||||
| Latin name | Collegium Regale Beatae Mariae et Sancti Nicholai Cantabrigiae | |||||||||
| Motto | Veritas et Utilitas (Latin: Truth and usefulness) |
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| Founder | Henry VI | |||||||||
| Named after | The Blessed Virgin Mary Saint Nicholas |
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| Established | 1441 | |||||||||
| Location | King's Parade | |||||||||
| Admittance | Men and women | |||||||||
| Provost | Prof. Ross Harrison | |||||||||
| Undergraduates | 392 | |||||||||
| Graduates | 280 | |||||||||
| Sister college | New College, Oxford | |||||||||
| Official website | ||||||||||
| Boat Club website | ||||||||||
King's College, Cambridge is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Formally The King's College of Our Lady and St. Nicholas in Cambridge, it is referred to as King's within the university.
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History
King's was founded in 1441 by King Henry VI. His first design was modest, but by 1445 was intended to be a magnificent display of royal patronage. There were to be a Provost and seventy scholars, occupying a substantial site in central Cambridge whose drastic clearance involved the closure of several streets. The college was granted a remarkable series of feudal privileges, and all of this was supported by a substantial series of endowments from the King.
The college was to be specifically for boys from Eton College, which he had also founded. It was not until 1865 that the first non-Etonian undergraduates arrived to study at King's, and the first fellow to have not attended Eton was elected in 1873. The connection with Eton is now weak, but a scholarship to attend the college, exclusively available to students from Eton, is still awarded each year.
The very first buildings of the college, now part of the Old Schools, were begun in 1441, but by 1443 the decision to build to a much grander plan had been taken. That plan survives in the 1448 Founders Will describing in detail a magnificent court with a chapel on one side. But within a decade, civil war (the Wars of the Roses) meant that funds from the King began to dry up. By the time of his deposition in 1461, the chapel walls had been raised 60ft high at the east end but only 8ft at the west; a building line which can still be seen today as the boundary between the lighter stone below and the darker above. Work proceeded sporadically until a generation later in 1508 when the Founder's nephew King Henry VII was prevailed upon to finish the shell of the building. The interior had to wait a further generation until completion by 1544 with the aid of King Henry VIII.
It has been speculated that the choice of the college as a beneficiary by the two later Henry's was a political one, with Henry VII in particular concerned to legitimate a new, post civil war, Tudor regime by demonstrating patronage of what was by definition the King's College. Later building work is marked by an uninhibited branding with the Tudor rose and other symbols of the new establishment, quite against the precise instructions of the Founders Will. Henry VI is not completely forgotten at the College, however, which holds a sumptuous annual dinner in his memory called "Founder's Feast" to which all members of College in their last year of studies are invited.
King's College Chapel
The College Chapel, an example of late Gothic architecture, was built over a period of 100 years (1446 - 1531) in three stages. The Chapel features the world's largest fan vault, stained glass windows, and the painting "The Adoration of the Magi" by Rubens.
The Chapel is actively used as a place of worship and also for some concerts and college events. The world-famous Chapel choir consists of choral scholars (male students from the college) and choristers (boys educated at the nearby King's College School). The choir sings services on most days in term-time, and also performs concerts and makes recordings and broadcasts. In particular, it has broadcast its Nine Lessons and Carols on the BBC from the Chapel on Christmas Eve for many decades. Additionally, there is a mixed-voice Chapel choir of male and female students, King's Voices, which sings evensong on Mondays during term-time.
The Chapel is widely seen as a symbol of Cambridge, as seen in the logo of the city council ([1]).
Education at King's
The unofficial and sometimes disputed Tompkins Table ranked King's tenth out of a total of twenty-nine rated colleges at the University of Cambridge in 2005; the college's position has fluctuated between tenth and twentieth over the years 2000-2005.
King's offers all undergraduate courses available at the University, except for education and veterinary medicine, although Directors of Studies for Anglo-Saxon Norse & Celtic, Geography, Land Economy and Management Studies all visit from other colleges.
Since its foundation, the college has housed a library, providing books for all students, covering all the subjects offered by King's. Around 130,000 books are held: some available for teaching and for reference, others being rare books and manuscripts.
Intake and access profile
The college has gradually broadened its intake to include many students from state schools, often having the highest proportion of maintained school acceptances of the undergraduate colleges. Inevitably this has led to accusations of reactionary bias against public school pupils and of affirmative action (positive discrimination), although the relatively high proportion of state-school students reflects the far greater number of applications from pupils at maintained schools.[2]. King's has established a Schools Liaison Officer post in order to provide support to students, whatever their background, and schools and colleges of any type to find out more about the University of Cambridge and the college[3]. In general, the atmosphere at King's is considered to be a little easier than that of other colleges to integrate into if you come from a working class or minority background.
Student life
As with all Cambridge colleges King's has its own student unions both for undergraduates (King's College Student Union or KCSU) and for graduates (King's College Graduate Society or KCGS). Having a reputation for being more politically active than other colleges, students at King's have used both organisations to assist in the decision-making processes in the College itself and the University. The Student Union has a long record of activism. In the eighties a long rent strike against the college's investment in apartheid South Africa was organized.
King's students successfully established a university-wide rent strike, through the formation of the King's Access Alliance, during the 1999-2000 academic year in response to increased living costs (which, they believed, would deter potential applicants and thus affect the college's access profile); a second rent-strike in 2003 was, however, much less successful, due partly to a failure to secure support outside of the college and the hard line taken by the then Provost.
King's has a venue known as the Cellar Bar, a small room in the basement of the college, which regularly acts as a music venue. The main bar at King's is far older, and is the site of more informal meetings between students. The bar has been traditionally painted a socialist red, including a depiction of a hammer and sickle. In 2004 it was redecorated, with the walls painted yellow and the overall decor lightened. A hammer and sickle survives in a frame on the wall, a source of some controversy. King's also has a dedicated Coffee Shop adjacent to the bar. A Vacation Bar, or "vac bar", also sometimes operates during the summer vacation, run by (and mainly for) the graduate students who remain in College throughout the year.
Whereas most Cambridge colleges celebrate May Week with a May Ball (which actually falls in June), since the early 1980s King's has instead held a June Event (a more informal version of a May Ball) known as King's Affair. The down-scaling followed a huge invasion of crashers over the backs when the Stranglers played at the last King's ball. An important consideration in the enduring popularity of the June Event is its cheapness compared to the May Balls of other colleges, a ticket generally costing in the neighborhood of £50 rather than the £90-200 common for May Balls.
While not enjoying a reputation for sport, much sporting activity occurs at King's. Most intercollegiate sports events are entered and most people will be able to find something to participate in at a suitable level. The largest sports club in the college is the King's College Boat Club, which has recently enjoyed a good run of success.
Alumni (Non Resident Members)
Time Magazine published, in 2000, a list ([4]) of what it considered the most 'influential and important' people of the twentieth century. In a list of one hundred names, King's was the only European institution that could claim two: Alan Turing and John Maynard Keynes who had been both students and fellows at the college. Other alumni of King's College have included prime ministers, archbishops, and the novelist E.M. Forster. More recently they have included authors Zadie Smith and Salman Rushdie, politician Charles Clarke, journalist Johann Hari, folk musician John Spiers, and David Baddiel, the comedian and composer of a chart topping football anthem.
Montague Rhodes James, celebrated ghost story writer and mediaevalist, spent much of his life at King's as student, don and Provost. Many of his finest stories were read at Christmas to friends in his rooms in the College.
Once someone has been admitted to the College, they become a member for life. For this reason, King's alumni are referred to as 'Non Resident Members'.
See also Category: Alumni of King's College, Cambridge, and Category: Fellows of King's College, Cambridge
In popular culture
King's College features in the Yes Minister episode "The Greasy Pole" as the setting for the 'coincident[al]' meeting between Jim Hacker and Professor Henderson, a Chemistry Don. In this exchange, Jim Hacker attempts to persuade Henderson to soften the phrasing of his governmental report, to allow Hacker the political flexibility to bow to public demand.
The 1987 film Maurice, based on the novel by E. M. Forster, himself a student and fellow at King's, was filmed in the college.
In 1930, a Cambridgeshire Constabulary Detective Sergeant was shot dead by an estranged pupil who also shot his tutor, on the first door on the left of the dorm houses.
Panorama
See also
- Category:Alumni of King's College, Cambridge
- Category:Fellows of King's College, Cambridge
External links
- University of Cambridge official website
- King's College official website
- King's members (official microsite for non-resident members (alumni) and fellows)
- Global Warming Bibliography at King's College Library, Cambridge
- King's College Choir official webpages
- Collegium Regale, the Choral Scholars of King's College, Cambridge
- A history of King's College chapel choristers
- King's College Student Union official website
- King's College on Google maps
- College Boat Club Webpage
References
- Saltmarsh, John: King's College (in Victoria County History of Cambridgeshire, Volume III, ed JPC Roach, 1959)
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