Central · Founded 1348
Gonville & Caius College
One of Cambridge's four oldest colleges, with fifteen Nobel laureates to its name and more than half a century as Stephen Hawking's academic home, entered through Renaissance gates that graduands still pass on their way to the Senate House.
The college
A closer
look.
Central — Trinity Street
Founded 1348. Founded in 1348 as Gonville Hall by Edmund Gonville, a Norfolk rector, in the shadow of the Black Death, and refounded in 1557 by John Caius, a former student and royal physician who restored its fortunes and gave the college its double name.
Sixteenth-century Caius Court carries John Caius's three allegorical gates — Humility, Virtue and Honour — charting the student's progress towards a degree, while Alfred Waterhouse's Victorian Tree Court range presents a grand frontage to Trinity Street.
On a visit
Don’t miss.
- 01The Gate of Honour beside Senate House Passage
- 02Sixteenth-century Caius Court
- 03Medieval Gonville Court
- 04Waterhouse's Tree Court frontage on Trinity Street
- 05The chapel containing John Caius's monument
Connected to
Notable
names.
- William Harvey (discovered the circulation of the blood)
- Francis Crick (co-discoverer of the structure of DNA)
- Stephen Hawking (Fellow for over fifty years)
- Howard Florey (developer of penicillin)
- James Chadwick (discoverer of the neutron)
- John Venn (logician, of the Venn diagram)
Before you go
Visiting Gonville & Caius College
The college is closed to general visitors on weekdays during term, with other access via the Porters' Lodge by prior arrangement, so entry cannot be assumed; prospective applicants are welcome to visit at any time without booking, and current arrangements are set out on the college website.
Opening hours, admission and access change often — check the official site before you travel.
- Founded
- 1348
- Area
- Central — Trinity Street
- Type
- College
On the same walk
Closest to
this one.
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