Punting facts

Funny stories

1- Lord Byron wanted to bring his dog to Cambridge but wasn't allowed as in the Cambridge rules it said 'no dogs'. Byron read the ancient university laws and realised he could legally keep a bear. For his stay at Trinity he kept a bear with him, which often terrorised other students. 2- There are many strange laws at Cambridge. One student found it he was technically allowed a pint of ale in his law exam and told his professors. When he arrived, he found the pint and also a suit of armour, which he was required to wear, by law, in order to consume the pint in his exam. 3- St John's boathouse killed the cox of the Trinity boat in a race as they had attached a sword to the end of the boat. They were so ashamed, they changed the name to Lady Margaret Boat club, the oldest boat club on the river. 4- The college master at Kings went to bed one night with his car unlocked in the carpark. Kings students completely dismantled the car, carried the pieces up onto the roof of the Gibbs Building. The master woke up to a nasty surprise.

St John's library

1624 - says ILCS, which stands for the Latin : John of Lincoln, Keeper of the Seal

Wren Bridge (Kitchen Bridge)

1711 Sir Cristopher Wren When the New Court building was completed it contained a dining hall but no kitchen. Food was prepared in the Old Court and taken over the bridge. Has high water markings from various cambridge floods.

Gibbs building

1724 part of King's college. Made mostly of Portland stone and nearly bankrupted the colleges. Was meant to be 4x the size but the money ran out so this is the smaller version.

Trinity Bridge

1764 by James Essex

Magdalene Bridge

1823 Rebuilt twice since then. Site of Canterbridge which gave the city its original name. (Cambridge used to be called Canterbridge.) 26 bridges over the Cam, roughly 20 in inner cambridge.

Back and Side of New Court Building

1831 The Virginia creeper growing at the back is protected by law under the building's listing. It turns fiery red in Autumn. The word blazer comes from it.

Porter's Lodge

Early 1400's Oldest building on the river, as older colleges don't all have their original structures. The yellow semi-circles on the bottom are bricked up toilet ducts where waste would be flushed into the river. Two bricked up windows at the top were due to the window tax, where the term daylight robbery comes from. (Tax used to tax wealthy introduced in 1692 by William of Orange).

Mathematical Bridge

First built in 1749, but rebuilt in 1866 and then in 1905. Designed by one of Newton's students, William Etheridge and built by James Essex. It always had nuts and bolts despite the popular myth that Queen's students took it down and failed to rebuild it. The technique is called tangential radial trussing, originally a Chinese design. It only uses straight beams of wood, no curved ones. However, Leonardo da Vinci had designed a bridge with almost the same design with no bolts in the 1490s, designed for battles.

Trinity Hall College

Founded by Bishop Bateman of Norwich in 1350 Fifth oldest college in Cambridge. At the time of founding, the black death swept across England and killed off most of the Lawyers. This bishop wanted tor restore them and created Trinity Hall, which still has a strong tradition with law.

General Cambridge Facts

Founded in 1209 by oxford students fleeing arrest for murdering a young girl. 4th oldest university in the world. 31 colleges Oldest university press in the world. 121 Nobel prize laureates 14 prime ministers 194 Olympic medals won by alumni 30 heads of state in other countries John Harvard went here

Clare College

Founded in 1326 as University hall and refounded in 1338 as Clare hall by Elizabeth de Clare (rich lady with 3 rich husbands, each died soon after the wedding.) Second oldest college after Peterhouse. David Attenborough and Andrew Wiles went here. The Gardens on the right are the nicest in Cambridge. Students can get married there.

King's College

Founded in 1441 by King Henry VI. Henry VI also founded Eton.He put loads of his personal fortune into its building but due to the Wars of the Roses had to take back the money to fund them. The college therefore wasn't finished until Henry VIII did it, many years later. Kings only accepted people from Eton for 400 years. Now it takes in more state school applicants than any other college.

St John's College

Founded in 1511 by Lady Margaret Beaufort. 7 prime ministers went here, along with William Wordsworth and William Wilberforce (helped abolish slavery). Only the royal family can eat unmarked swans except for the fellows at St John's college. Huge rivalry with Trinity

Trinity College

Founded in 1546 by Henry VIII. By far the biggest and most prestigious college in either Cambridge or Oxford. One of the largest landowners in the UK. Alumni include 34 Nobel Prize winners and include: 6 Prime Ministers, physicists Isaac Newton, Ernest Rutherford and Niels Bohr. Francis Bacon, Lord Byron, Bertrand Russell and Ludwig Wittgenstein. Prince Charles also forced his way in here with a letter from the queen, and lived in 27 rooms on the entire top floor of the accommodation. 7 more Nobel prize winners than all of Oxford combined.

Silver Street Bridge

Has been a bridge here since the 14th century, but this one is from 1959.

Order of Colleges

Magdalene(1428 and 1542), St John's(1511), Trinity(1546), Trinity Hall(1350), Clare(1326 and 1338), King's(1441), St Catharine's (1473), Queen's (1448)

St John's Corner / Front of new build

1831 - Thomas Rickman and Henry Hutchinson. New court building, known as the Wedding Cake for being so highly symmetrical and layered. Boston Ivy turns vivid red and it's where the term 'blazer' comes from. The eagle on the archway is not symmetrical. It faces left so it doesn't look at Trinity College ahead. To keep the symmetry, if you opened a window on one side you had to open one on the opposite side. Students could be fined for not doing this. It doesn't have a clock on the tower because at the time of building only one chiming clock could exist in this part of the city. Trinity and St Johns both wanted a clock, so whoever built the tower first got it. Trinity cheated by building theirs out of wood first, winning the clock, then taking the whole thing down and rebuilding it out of stone.

Bridge of Sighs

1831 by Henry Hutchinson 4 bridges with the name in world. In Venice its between the palace and the courts. People crossing it were to be judged and often executed. They would sigh one last time as they crossed. In Cambridge it connects the accommodation to where the students get their exam results. They would sigh before getting the results.

Bodley Court

1893 - student accommodation for third years at King's. The quality of the room is based on average grades over the past two years. Best rooms are at the top. Three windows in a row are one student's bedroom.

Queen's College - Erasmus building

1959 Queen's college was founded by Margaret of Anjou (wife of Henry VI) in 1448. She led Henry's Lancaster army in many battles in the war of the roses as he'd had a nervous breakdown. Designed by the famous architect Sir Basil Spence. Designed to fit into its surroundings, so the pillars represent trees, green curtains leaves and the grey roofing British weather. They named it after the Dutch Philosopher Erasmus (who studied there) who suggested lectures should be delivered in English instead of Latin or Greek.

Garret Hostel bridge

1960 reinforced concrete bridge. Designed by Timothy Guy Morgan. One of the first concrete bridges in the UK. Meant to look like a bird flying and was a big feat of engineering. Orgasm bridge due to cycling over it.

St John's Cripps Building

1964-67 Called the Multi Story Car Park by Prince Charles. He wanted to tear it down, but it has won many awards and is grade 2 listed.

Jerwood Library

1999 - newest building on the river. Part of trinity hall and meant to look like a ship going onto river. Has 4 floors, 110 reading spaces and many specialised rooms.

Clare Bridge

Built 1639. Wedge missing from one of the stone balls that decorates the bridge. Oldest bridge on the river as Cromwell tore down all other bridges in order to fortify Cambridge castle in the Civil War. It has 14 stone spheres, one of which has a wedge cut out. There is lots of debate over what really happened but the architect was not paid enough for the bridge so he took out a wedge for compensation. It's been supposed to fall down since it was built.

King's Bridge

Built in 1819, designed by William Wilkins. Legend has it this is the last place in England you can still legally fight to the death.

Magdalene College

Created in 1428 but refounded in 1542 by Thomas Audley. - Last place in whole country to let women study in 1988. Men wore black arm bands and held fake funeral for education (marched through town with a coffin) , flying flag at half mast. - Women raised the grade average there by 15%. - Thomas Audley was chancellor to Henry VIII, and was given the college as a present. There was an argument over the money, and as punishment the king said he couldn't name the college after himself. He instead named it after a saint, but snuck his name into it. That's why it's pronounced MAudleyne.

Wren Library

Designed 1676 and completed in 1695. A single large room with some very valuable books including first ever copy of Isaac Newton's Principia Mathematica, first translation of Bible into Welsh, first copy of Winnie the Pooh and the two oldest folios of Shakespeare's plays.

Kings Chapel

Started in 1446 by Henry VI. Thought it would take 11 years, ended up taking nearly 100. Where the world famous Christmas Eve Carols are sung. Also the largest stone-vaulted chapel in the world. A secret Cambridge group called the night climbers different buildings around Cambridge. One of them put a traffic cone on one of the spires. Scaffolding was built to safely remove it, but before they finished the scaffolding, in the night, the person climbed up and put it on a spire on the other side of the building. In WW2, Keynes and Hayek sat out on bomb watch for a night. What they talked about we can only guess. Removed windows in WW2 to avoid bombs smashing them, but it took the length of the war to remove them so was pointless.