St. John's College, Cambridge

On the second day of our trip to Cambridge, J had an interview to attend so I was left to my own devices for the day.  I decided to take tour of St. John's College, one of the university of Cambridge "houses".  St. John's was originally the Hospital of St. John, which had fallen into ruin.  A chancellor of the university persuaded Lady Margaret Beaufort, the mother of King Henry VII to found a college here.  

This is the main entrance, the Great Gate from the street and it was completed in 1516.  On the front is a carving of Lady Margaret Beaufort's coat of arms and a statue of St. John.

This leads you into the first court or quadrangle, built in 1511.

Looking back to the Great Gate.

To one side is the chapel, built in 1868.

Tomb of Hugh Ashton.

Another gateway, passing under a statue of Lady Margaret, leads to another court.

The second court, built 1599-1602.

Passing through the Shrewsbury Tower to a third court.

 Statue of the Countess of Shrewsbury and her coat of arms.  The Countess helped fund the building of this court.

The third court was built in two stages.  The old college library was built in 1624 and the remainder was built 1699-72,  after the Civil War.

The tour route lead through a building towards the Cam

and over the"kitchen bridge" for a view of the Bridge of Sighs.

Over the river is the New Court Building, completed in 1831.

From there, I retraced my steps to the other side of the Bridge of Sighs,

then headed back out the Great Gate to the city centre.

These buildings are so beautiful with such a lot of detail!  By now it was lunchtime and I headed to the famous Fitzbillies.

Their speciality is a very syrupy Chelsea bun!

That really only left one place for me to visit! ;) A yarn shop of course! :)

The Sheep Shop was recommended to me, so it would have been rude not to visit

 and buy some yarn! ;)