Queens College Cambridge Private Guided tour

This event is for the members booked on the Cambridge weekend.

Queens’ is a lively community of students, fellows and staff. The College is located at the heart of the city of Cambridge. They are famous for their ancient buildings and riverside site; if you visit, though, you’ll see that the College has evolved throughout its six centuries and that Queens’ as a place and as a community is very much engaged with the present and looking to the future.

We have hired a guide (the only way a group can visit the college).

The tour includes…

The history of the college: Queens college was started five years after King’s college, but completed over 90 years before it. We tell you about the founders of the college and how they achieved this. We also talk about the signficance of the college to the rest of Cambridge and how it changed the university forever.

Queens’ college courts: Old Court in Queens’ is the oldest example of a purpose built college in Cambridge, while Cloister court is the oldest college cloister. We tell you what a medieval college was expected to provide and show you how to recognise the buildings within it. Our tour takes you through the seven courts in Queens’ college showing you buildings from every century from the 14th to the present day.

The river: Queens’ was the first college to be built backing on to the river. We reveal the importance of the river to Cambridge and to the university, take you over one of the most famous bridges in Cambridge and tell you how it was made and by whom.

Art in Queens’ college: Our tour looks inside the hall of Queens’ and takes you into the chapel to look at some of the most amazing art in Cambridge. We explain how this came about and what it has to do with the industrial revolution and the pre Raphaelites.

And much more! Why are there so many carvings of boars in Queens’ college? Which trees are both typically English and yet very rare and where are they to be found? What did “The great civilizer of Europe” achieve for Queens’ college and for Cambridge and what did he think about the town? And what role did velcro play? We reveal all.