Science Interviews

Trinity College

The main landmark of Trinity on the river is the Wren library, designed by Sir Christopher Wren, who also designed St Paul’s Cathedral in London. It holds some original works of Isaac Newton and Shakespeare and the books are all kept up on the first floor so if the river ever flooded, they wouldn’t be damaged as thet’re pretty irreplaceable! Trinity is the richest college at either Cambridge or Oxford. It was set up by Henry VIII in 1546 and he gave it a lot of land, property and money gained from the dissolution of the monasteries. In fact, some of the Cambridge colleges that were originally monasteries were broken up and given to Trinity as land. It used to be said that you could walk from Cambridge to Oxford on land owned by Trinity, but although they are the richest college with assets of over £700 million, this is not possible any more.

August 2008