King's College

KING'S COLLEGE is one of the most famous of the University of Cambridge's colleges, possibly due to its spectacular chapel which has become a hallmark of the city of Cambridge.

King's was founded by Henry VI., in 1441, and dedicated to St Nicholas, his patron saint, on the site of several hostels and pieces of ground purchased by his Commissioners, opposite Clare, between Milne Street and the Schools.

A court was erected here much after the usual College plan, with hall on the north side, and a chapel on the south side which fell down in 1536. The rooms were used till 1828. At that time, the new buildings on the south side of the College being completed, the ground of the old court was sold to the University; and, in 1835, it was cleared for the extension of the Library, the gateway and wall, on the west side, alone remaining.

The beauty of this gateway, called by Scott one of the architectural gems of Cambridge, shows that an architect of no mean pretensions was employed in the work of building the court. The piece of ground called "Butt Close," on the west side of the river, was granted to the College by the mayor and corporation in 1447.

The Chapel, with its fine proportions, noble windows, gigantic but elegant buttresses, beautiful turrets, and boldly designed parapet, is a truly royal structure. Fuller speaks of it as "one of the rarest fabricks in Christendom, wherein the stone work, wood work, and glass work contend which shall deserve most admiration."

The first stone was laid by Henry VI., 1446, as was not uncommon, under the place intended for the high altar, which was fourteen feet from the east wall.

There are indications that the eastern part of the Chapel was roofed in before his death, and the greater ornamentation of the western part of the Chapel (the crowns, roses, portcullises, dragons, greyhounds and antelopes, on the buttresses and in the interior), in comparison with the eastern part, is some confirmation of the view that the latter was completed at an earlier date than the former.

After the death of this King, during the Wars of the Roses, the work was carried on slowly and discontinuously. Edward IV. contributed money and material, and the eastern part was probably finished in his time.

At length Henry VII., who had the greatest veneration for the memory of his predecessor, and was anxious to secure the intercessions of so pious a person, finding that his own life was drawing to a close, in the year before his death (1508), made liberal grants and bequests for the Chapel.

The works were accordingly recommenced and carried on with more of that ornament and repetition of heraldic device which marked the Tudor period, and which is, perhaps, not without some detriment to the severe grandeur and dignity of the original plan.

The stone-work is thought to have been completed in 1515; the glazing of the windows to have been done 1526-31; and the wood-carving in the interior, 1532-36.

The Chapel is one of the finest and most complete Perpendicular buildings in the country, with an octagonal tower surmounted by an ogee-shaped cupola at each of the four corners. There are eleven buttresses, with four stages and lofty pinnacles on each side, and chantries between them. Five of these buttresses on the north side, and four on the south, are ornamented with crowns, roses, portcullises, and dragons. The battlements are of fine rich open-work. The sun-dial on the eastern pier of the south porch bears date 1578, and the motto, Ut hora sic jugit vita.

The interior has a richly vaulted stone roof with a pendant keystone of a ton weight, in the centre of each of the twelve divisions. These keystones are faced alternately with a rose and a portcullis.

It probably covers a more extensive space than any continuous vault in the country, and it is a specimen of the peculiarly English method known as fan-vaulting, perhaps the most beautiful kind of roof ever devised. The spaces between the windows are filled with niches, roses, portcullises and fleurs-de-lis. The stone carvings are bold and in good style.

On a rose in the south-west corner of the ante-chapel is carved a small half-figure of the Virgin Mary, surrounded by rays of glory. It reminds us of "rose without a thorn", a favourite medieval designation for the Virgin.

The oak screen was erected as a rood-loft (though it does not appear that a rood was placed upon it) in Henry VIII.'s time, between the marriage (1532) and the death (1536) of Anne Boleyn, for it bears the initials of the king, H. R., and those of the Queen, R. A. (Regina Anna), within true lovers' knots, and also the rose, fleur-de-lis, and portcullis.

The gates of the screen were made by a carver named Woodroffe, in 1636; and the arms of Charles I. are carved upon them. The stalls, which extend along the north and south walls, are evidently of the same date as the screen ; but the canopies, etc., above them are much later.

The high altar, which was destroyed in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, stood where the present altar, executed from a design by the late T. Gower, does. From 1770 until lately the altar stood against the east wall ; it was then that the architect, James Essex, designed a series of wooden panels with carving and pinnacles in Gothic style.

The panel-work which intervenes between this and the stalls had been put up by Austin in 1678. An altar-piece - a "Deposition" ascribed to Daniel de Volterra, from the Orleans gallery - was given by Frederick, Earl of Carlisle, in 1780.

The ante-chapel was paved with Portland stone in 1774. The chapels on the south side were once used as a library, and the bookcases in some of them still exist. In that on the west of the organ screen is the oldest painted glass in the chapel.

The organ-case was made and placed upon the rood-loft in 1606. During the Civil War the organ and case were taken down, and choral services were prohibited here, as well as elsewhere. Another organ was built in 1688. It was re-constructed by Avery, in 1803, and further enlarged by Hill, in 1859, and again in 1889. It is a fine instrument; and the acoustic properties of the chapel are excellent. In few buildings are the choral services and anthems performed to greater advantage.

The remarkable timber roof over the stone roof should be noted, and a view of the district from the top of the chapel obtained. The timber was given by Henry VII., or his executors, and came chiefly from Wethersfield Park.

The windows - except the west window - were glazed with stained glass between 1515 and 1531, by Barnard Flower, the King's glazier, and four other glaziers resident in London.

The designs, the value of which cannot be too highly estimated, were furnished, so far as we can judge, by the same artists. The cost of them is said to have been defrayed, or partly defrayed, out of the fine paid by Nix, Bishop of Norwich, in consequence of a premunire in which he became involved in the time of Henry VIII.

There are twelve windows on each side (besides an east and a west window). The plan is the same in all. The tracery in the upper part is occupied by heraldic devices. Below this, each side window has five lights divided horizontally by the transom, so as to make an upper and a lower tier.

The middle lights of both tiers are also subdivided, making four divisions containing figures called "Messengers," because they bear, on scrolls or devices, descriptions in Latin (usually texts of Scripture) of the pictures at the sides.

Some of the Messengers are venerable figures like prophets, others are angels. The two side-lights below the transom on each side are occupied by a single picture ; the same is the case with the two above. There are four pictures, two above and two below, in each window along the sides of the chapel, and the four Messengers occupy the middle light in its whole length.

The pictures in the lower tier (1 and 3) give for the most part events in our Lord's life, the series beginning in the westernmost window in the north side. The pictures in the upper tier (2 and 4) are from the Old Testament, the Apocrypha, or legendary history; and, generally, the subject of each is supposed to correspond typically with that of the picture beneath it.

Evidence can be produced to show that practically all the glaziers employed on the work were foreigners (Flemings or Germans) resident in London. The designs appear to have been, in part at least, the work of an Antwerp artist, Dirck van Vellert.

The design for the Hall is said to have been suggested by that of Crosby Hall, in London; but it differs from that and other medieval halls in having the oriel window in the middle, and two lanterns, and there was a gallery at either end.

The gallery at the east end has recently been renewed and a wooden canopy and panelling substituted for it, designed by T. G. Jackson. The first Church Congress was held in this hail. Here are portraits of Sir Robert Walpole, Archbishop Sumner, and Lord Stratford de Redcliffe.

The larger Combination Room, on the west of the hail, contains portraits of the Founder, and of the Rev. Charles Simeon, who for many years held the living of Trinity Church, and was, in the early part of the 19th century, the leader in Cambridge of the Evangelical party, and from his position exercised great religious influence in the church and the country. There is also a portrait of the late Provost, Dr. Okes, by Herkomer. In the smaller combination room is a portrait of the Founder.

The Library is on the first floor near the Provost's Lodge, and extends into part of the Lodge. A building, designed by W. M. Fawcett, MA., was erected in 1884, between the hall and King's Lane, containing a lecture-room and chambers. It forms the western side of a quadrangle, called "Chetwynd Court," open towards King's Lane.

A handsome building open to the west was erected in 1893, from designs by Bodley, on the ground between the Provost's Lodge and the river. It forms the eastern and southern sides of a quadrangle. A range of buildings was later completed on the south of the combination room from designs by Sir Astin Webb.

A wooden bridge over the Cam, opposite the middle of the back of the College, as directed by the founder, was erected in 1472. It was pulled down, and a stone bridge was built in its place in 1672.

A raised avenue, a part of which still remains, ran westward from this bridge, across "Butt Close," to a wooden bridge and gate over the western boundary-ditch. In 1819 the present bridge, by Wilkins, was erected at the suggestion, and chiefly at the expense, of the Rev. C. Simeon, who occupied the rooms over the arch in Gibbs' building. The old bridge and the avenue were destroyed, and the ground laid out as it now is.

The Fountain in the middle of the quadrangle, with a statue of the founder, whose plan included a fountain here, was erected in 1879, at a cost of £4,000 (of which the artist, Armitstead, received £3,500), a sum of money having been bequeathed for the purpose, in 1826, by Mr. Davidson.

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.

Famous alumni (there are many) include: David Baddiel, Rupert Brooke, E. M. Forster and John Maynard Keynes.

Website: King's College