Peterhouse is the oldest college in the University of Cambridge. It was founded in 1284 by Hugo de Balsham, Bishop of Ely. Peterhouse has (2001) approximately 250 undergraduates, 90 graduate students, and 45 fellows, making it one of the smallest Colleges in the University of Cambridge.

History

The foundation of Peterhouse dates to 1280 when Hugo de Balsham, the Bishop of Ely, settled to start a college on land that is now part of St John's. In 1284, he transferred to the present site with the purchase of two houses to accommodate a Master and fourteen "worthy but impoverished Fellows" and Peterhouse was founded. Following his death in 1286, Balsham bequeathed a sum of money that was used to buy further land, on which a Hall was built that survives to this day.

In its early centuries, the college merely provided housing for the teaching fellows, who lived in college but taught elsewhere. It wasn't until the sixteenth century that students were first given accommodation in the college.

Peterhouse is the oldest Cambridge college

Buildings

The college's dining hall is the only building that survives from the college's thirteenth century foundation. Heavily renovated in the late nineteenth century, it now contains an impressive oriel window. The stained glass, with pieces by William Morris, Ford Madox Brown and Edward Burne-Jones, is a fine example of Pre-Raphaelite glass. The sixteenth century fireplace now contains tiles, also by Morris.

The college's chapel and library were built in 1628 when the Master Mathew Wren (Christopher Wren's uncle) demolished the college's original houses. The chapel's Renaissance architecture contains a fine Pieta altarpiece, and a striking ceiling of golden suns. The original stained glass was destroyed by Parliamentarian forces in 1634, with only the East window's crucifixion scene – based on Rubens' Le Coup de Lance – surviving, following its timely removal. The current side windows are by Max Ainmuller , which were added in 1855.

The Old Court was added in the fifteenth century and classicised three centuries later.

The Master's Lodge is situated across Trumpington Street from the college, and was bequeathed to the college in 1726, a fine example of a Queen Anne house.

The grounds behind the college have been known as the Deer Park since deer were brought there in the nineteenth century, but the last of the deer died in the 1930s.

The Burrough's building (named after its architect, the master of Caius) was built in around 1740. Later additions to college include Gisbourne Court (1825), Fen Court (1939), and the William Stone Building (built by Leslie Martin , 1964).

Famous alumni of Peterhouse

• Charles Babbage (His analytical engine anticipated the modern computer)
• Richard Baker (Newsreader)
• Augustus Theodore Bartholomew (Cambridge librarian)
• Henry Cavendish (Scientist)
• Christopher Cockerell (inventor of the hovercraft)
• Richard Crashaw (Poet)
• James Dewar (scientist)
• Augustus Henry Fitzroy, 3rd Duke of Grafton (Prime Minister 1768-1770)
• Thomas Gray (Poet)
• Colin Charles Greenwood (Bass Player of Radiohead)
• Michael Howard (MP)
• Lord Kelvin (scientist)
• Aaron Klug OM PRS (Nobel Prize Winner, Peterhouse Fellow)
• Archer Martin (Nobel Prize for developing partition chromatography)
• James Mason (British film star)
• Chris Mead (ornithologist)
• Sam Mendes (Film producer)
• Andrew Perne
• Max Perutz (Nobel Prize for determining the structure of haemoproteins)
• Michael Portillo (politician)
• Claudia Pugh-Thomas (Trapeze artist)
• Anthony St Leger (soldier, politician, Governor of Saint Lucia, and founder of the St. Leger Stakes)
• John Whitgift (archbishop)
• Frank Whittle (Developed jet propulsion)