KING'S COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE
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(Redirected from Kings College, Cambridge)
'Kingās College, Cambridge' is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Formally 'The Kingās College of Our Lady and St. Nicholas', it is often referred to as 'Kingās' within the university.
Kingās 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. The connection with Eton remained strong for many years: it was not until 1865 that the first non-Etonian undergraduates arrived to study at Kingās, and the first fellow to have not attended Eton was elected in 1873.
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 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 Founderās 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 Henryās 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 Kingās 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 sumptous annual dinner in his memory called "Founder's Feast" to which all members of College in their last year of studies are invited.
Main articles: King's College Chapel, Cambridge
The College Chapel, an example of late Gothic architecture, was built over a period of 100 years in three stages. The Chapel features the worldās largest fan vault, stained glass windows, and the painting ā''The Adoration of the Magi''ā 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 Kingās 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, Kingās 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]).
The unofficial and sometimes disputed Tompkins Table ranked Kingās tenth out of a total of twenty-nine rated colleges at the University of Cambridge in 2005; the collegeās position has fluctuated between tenth and twentieth over the years 2000-2005.
Kingās 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 Kingās. Around 130,000 books are held: some available for teaching and for reference, others being rare books and manuscripts.
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. It also has a large percentage of students of Asian origin, particularly China and the Indian subcontinent. 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 Kings 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.
As with all Cambridge colleges Kingās has its own student unions both for undergraduates (Kingās College Student Union or KCSU) and for graduates (Kingās College Graduate Society or KCGS). Having a reputation for being more politically active than other colleges, students at Kingās 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.
Kingās students successfully established a university-wide rent strike, through the formation of the Kingās 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 collegeās 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.
Kingās 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 Kingās 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. Kingās also has a dedicated Coffee Shop adjacent to the bar. A Vacation Bar, or āvac barā, 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 Kingās 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 Ā£50 rather than the Ā£90-200 common for May Balls.
Time Magazine published in 2000 a list ([4]) of what it considered the most āinfluential and importantā 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 have included prime ministers, archbishops, authors Zadie Smith and Salman Rushdie, 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 here as student, don and Provost. Many of his finest stories were read at Christmas to friends in his rooms in the College.
King's College features in the ''Yes Minister'' episode "The Greasy Pole" as the setting for the 'co-incident[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.
★
★
★ University of Cambridge official website
★ Kingās College official website
★ Kingās College Choir official webpages
★ Collegium Regale, the Choral Scholars of Kingās College, Cambridge
★ A history of King's College chapel choristers
★ Kingās College Student Union official website
★ Kingās College on Google maps
★ Saltmarsh, John: ''Kingās College'' (in Victoria County History of Cambridgeshire, Volume III, ed JPC Roach, 1959)
The Gatehouse, built in the neo-Gothic style, as seen from Kingās Parade.
'Kingās College, Cambridge' is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Formally 'The Kingās College of Our Lady and St. Nicholas', it is often referred to as 'Kingās' within the university.
| Contents |
| History |
| Kingās College Chapel |
| Education at Kingās |
| Intake and access profile |
| Student life |
| Alumni |
| In popular culture |
| See also |
| External links |
| References |
History
Kingās 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. The connection with Eton remained strong for many years: it was not until 1865 that the first non-Etonian undergraduates arrived to study at Kingās, and the first fellow to have not attended Eton was elected in 1873.
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 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 Founderās 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 Henryās 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 Kingās 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 sumptous annual dinner in his memory called "Founder's Feast" to which all members of College in their last year of studies are invited.
Kingās College Chapel
Kingās College Chapel (partially obscured by the Gibbsā Building), seen from The Backs
Main articles: King's College Chapel, Cambridge
The College Chapel, an example of late Gothic architecture, was built over a period of 100 years in three stages. The Chapel features the worldās largest fan vault, stained glass windows, and the painting ā''The Adoration of the Magi''ā 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 Kingās 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, Kingās 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 Kingās
The unofficial and sometimes disputed Tompkins Table ranked Kingās tenth out of a total of twenty-nine rated colleges at the University of Cambridge in 2005; the collegeās position has fluctuated between tenth and twentieth over the years 2000-2005.
Kingās 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 Kingās. Around 130,000 books are held: some available for teaching and for reference, others being rare books and manuscripts.
Intake and access profile
Kingās College dining hall
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. It also has a large percentage of students of Asian origin, particularly China and the Indian subcontinent. 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 Kings 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
Gibbs' Building
As with all Cambridge colleges Kingās has its own student unions both for undergraduates (Kingās College Student Union or KCSU) and for graduates (Kingās College Graduate Society or KCGS). Having a reputation for being more politically active than other colleges, students at Kingās 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.
Kingās students successfully established a university-wide rent strike, through the formation of the Kingās 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 collegeās 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.
Kingās 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 Kingās 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. Kingās also has a dedicated Coffee Shop adjacent to the bar. A Vacation Bar, or āvac barā, 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 Kingās 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 Ā£50 rather than the Ā£90-200 common for May Balls.
Alumni
Time Magazine published in 2000 a list ([4]) of what it considered the most āinfluential and importantā 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 have included prime ministers, archbishops, authors Zadie Smith and Salman Rushdie, 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 here as student, don and Provost. Many of his finest stories were read at Christmas to friends in his rooms in the College.
In popular culture
King's College features in the ''Yes Minister'' episode "The Greasy Pole" as the setting for the 'co-incident[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.
See also
★
★
External links
★ University of Cambridge official website
★ Kingās College official website
★ Kingās College Choir official webpages
★ Collegium Regale, the Choral Scholars of Kingās College, Cambridge
★ A history of King's College chapel choristers
★ Kingās College Student Union official website
★ Kingās College on Google maps
References
★ Saltmarsh, John: ''Kingās College'' (in Victoria County History of Cambridgeshire, Volume III, ed JPC Roach, 1959)
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