Creating the Cambridge college

In the first of two articles, John Goodall looks at the early history of the college that helped defined the tradition of academic architecture in Cambridge

- John Goodall

Queens’ College, Cambridge, part I The President and Fellows of Queens’ College

IT has long been appreciated that the main courtyard of Queens’ College represents a new departure in the architecture of Cambridge. For the first time in the history of the university, this building, rapidly constructed between 1448– 50, brought together in coherent architectural form all the chief elements—the gatehouse, hall, services, chapel and lodgings —of a college. What is not generally understood, however, are the origins of this remarkable design, as suggested by the complex early history of the foundation.

During the late summer and autumn of 1446, a group of wealthy burgesses in the parish of St Botolph’s, Cambridge, made gifts of property towards the site of a new college in the city. They were undoubtedly encouraged in their generosity by their energetic parish priest, one Andrew Dokett. He had recently fought a legal battle to release St Botolph’s Church in the city from the controlling hand of Barnwell Priory and been confirmed as its rector. He also had some connection with a student lodging in the city known as St Bernard’s Hostel (he has been described as its governor, but it’s not clear what the evidence for this is). As originally conceived, the new college was almost certainly intended as an aggrandisement of this institution.