For more than 500 years, St John’s has been a community in determined pursuit of excellence in education, learning, religion and research. These five centuries have shaped the College you encounter today, from creating our stunningly beautiful site, to ensuring our continuing academic independence and, most important of all, building on the myriad academic advancements made by members of the College and their wider contributions to humanity and our universe.
St John’s has long been one of the biggest colleges in Cambridge, and our scale has helped deliver an impressive list of Nobel Laureates, Prime Ministers, scientists and philosophers, authors, writers, actors, musicians and sportspeople, inventors, business leaders and industry pioneers. To this day, our size helps us attract distinctive thinkers and the brightest young minds, inspired to build on the legacy of past Johnians.
Early 1200s A monastic house, the ‘Hospital of St John the Evangelist’, is established on the site the College occupies today
Early 16th century Lady Margaret Beaufort, mother of King Henry VII, is persuaded by her friend and counsellor Bishop John Fisher, Chancellor of the University, to establish a College in place of the old hospital, which has fallen into disrepair
1511 Lady Margaret dies in 1509 and it requires two years’ negotiation with Henry VIII before Fisher secures her legacy and a Royal Charter for the College of St John the Evangelist is granted, on 9 April 1511
1516 Over the five years, the College’s buildings are constructed around what is now First Court: the Gatehouse, Hall and Library, rooms for Fellows and students, and incorporating the 13th century chapel. In 1516 St John’s College opens, the foundation allowing for a Master and 50 Fellows and Scholars
1558 Elizabeth I comes to the throne with William Cecil, chief minister and adviser at her side, and perhaps the most eminent statesmen ever produced by St John’s. An era of rapid growth begins, and by 1581 the College numbers 51 Fellows and 284 scholars
1564 The Queen visits Cambridge and rides into the 16th-century Hall of St John’s on horseback, where she is greeted with a long Latin oration. The Hall wall is decorated with verses written by Fellows and students in her honour
1599-1602 The Countess of Shrewsbury pledges £3,400 for the building of Second Court, to this day considered an outstanding presentation of a Tudor court
1625 James I attends College to sign the marriage treaty of the future King Charles I and Henrietta Maria of France, in the Combination Room
1628 The (now Old) Library opens, financed by John Williams, Bishop of Lincoln and keeper of the Great Seal, solving a crisis over housing 2,000 books and many manuscripts gifted by The Earl of Southampton and William Crashaw
1642-51 The English Civil War throws the College into turmoil because of its loyalty to the King. The Parliamentarians turn First Court into a temporary gaol
1670s St John’s College Choir is founded, and Third Court completed
1724 William Heberden, considered the ‘father of clinical observation’, arrives as a student, subsequently holding a Fellowship in medicine
1776 & 1779 William Wilberforce and Thomas Clarkson begin their studies at St John’s. Joining forces in 1787, they will spend the rest of their lives leading the campaign to abolish the slave trade and slavery
1787 William Wordsworth arrives as a 17-year-old Cumbrian undergraduate. With his sympathy for the common man and love of nature, he becomes a central figure in shaping English Romanticism and perhaps our most famed alumnus
1806 Viscount Palmerston is elected to Parliament just three years after entering St John’s as a student. A commanding statesman, he will go on to serve two terms as Prime Minister
1825 The Lady Margaret Boat Club, the oldest College boat club in Cambridge, is founded
1829 The inaugural Cambridge and Oxford Boat Race is organised by Charles Merivale, a St John’s student and later Fellow, and an old school friend at Oxford
1831 Completion of New Court, an extravagant neo-gothic building, the first major College development west of the River Cam, with the Bridge of Sighs creating a new covered crossing
1869 A new Chapel is dedicated. Designed by George Gilbert Scott to replace the original 13th century chapel, it becomes a landmark in the cityscape, renowned for its beauty, scale and exceptional acoustic
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1914-18 During the First World War, 565 students, staff and alumni go off to fight, and nearly a third never return. Of 163 killed, one-fifth are 21 and under, and die before completing their degrees. During the conflict, the College becomes a military base for training
1933 The Nobel Prize in Physics is awarded to Professor Paul Dirac, the founding father of quantum physics and famed as a Fellow of St John’s. His academic gown still hangs in the Master’s Lodge
1944 St John’s plays a pivotal role in the Allied invasion of Normandy, a turning point in the Second World War. The 93ft-long Combination Room in Second Court is used by British Army officers to help plan the D-Day Landings on 6 June – the largest amphibious invasion in history
1966 Cambridge's expanding grammar school intake requires more student accommodation. The College commissions the brutalist Cripps Building, highly popular with its inhabitants to this day
1981 During a decade of change across Cambridge, the College votes to admit women. First woman Fellow, Dr Kathleen Wheeler, is elected and the first female postgraduates arrive, followed in 1982 by women undergraduates
1994 The new Working Library in Chapel Court opens to students and Fellows. Designed by Edward Cullinan, it has capacity for 120,000 volumes and spaces for more than 120 readers
2010 Excavation work on College land opposite First Court reveals 1,000 human remains in the medieval cemetery of St John’s Hospital, launching a long-term research programme
2011 St John’s celebrates its 500th anniversary with a Royal visit from HM Queen Elizabeth II and HRH The Duke of Edinburgh
2012 The Old Divinity School and Corfield Court, directly across from the Great Gate, open to provide lecture and teaching rooms and postgraduate accommodation
2015 Honorary Fellow and former affiliate student Prince William opens the College Archives in the converted School of Pythagoras. Built c1200 as a private home, this is the oldest surviving secular building in Cambridge
2019 Honorary Fellow Heather Hancock is elected 45th Master, the first woman to occupy the role, having studied at St John’s as an undergraduate
2022 In a pioneering move, the College announces that girls and women will be admitted as members of the world-renowned St John’s College Choir
