Trinity College

About this place

Look closely at Henry VIII above the Great Gate: in his right hand is a wooden chair leg, not a sceptre. The student prank is roughly a century old, and the college the king founded in 1546 has deliberately left it there, swapping in a sceptre for only a few weeks in 2023 for Charles III's 75th birthday. Beside the gate on Trinity Street, a small apple tree is a graft from Newton's own tree at Woolsthorpe. This is Cambridge's largest and richest college; its members have collected 34 Nobel Prizes, more than any other Oxford or Cambridge college, and its rolls carry Newton, Byron, Tennyson and Bertrand Russell. Beyond the gate lies Great Court, built between 1599 and 1608 and described by the college as the largest enclosed court in Europe, with its stone fountain and a clock that strikes each hour twice; this is the setting for the Great Court Run immortalised in Chariots of Fire. Be clear about the current arrangement, though: the courts, Great Court included, are closed to independent visitors. The only way in is a porter-led guided tour, GBP 10 per person with under-12s free, leaving daily at 10:00 and 14:00 from the Great Gate, lasting about an hour, booked in advance through the college website and paid at the gate before it starts; latecomers are not admitted. The dining hall is excluded and you may meet restoration scaffolding in places. Without a booking, settle for a free glimpse of the court from Queen's Gate on Trinity Lane. The real jewel costs nothing: the Wren Library, designed by Christopher Wren and built between 1676 and 1695 in Nevile's Court. It opens to the public for two hours only, Monday to Friday 12:00-14:00 and Saturday mornings 10:30-12:30 in term, no booking needed, with the entrance through the Brewhouse Gate at the end of Garret Hostel Lane by the river rather than through the Great Gate, last entry ten minutes before closing, strictly enforced, and a cap of 30 visitors at a time. The glass cases hold Newton's own annotated copy of the Principia, a lock of his hair, a 1623 Shakespeare First Folio and the Winnie-the-Pooh manuscripts in the author's hand, the one thing you may not photograph. The library is up a stone staircase with no lift and the shelves themselves are roped off, so allow half an hour to an hour at most; in summer a queue builds before noon. The college's riverside grounds, the Backs, are free from roughly 09:00 to 17:00. Practically: Cambridge is under an hour by train from London King's Cross, and the station is a 25-minute walk or a short bus ride from the college. Drivers should avoid the scarce, expensive central car parks and use the Park and Ride sites on the edge of town. The courts are flat and paved, fine for a pushchair; the library is stairs only. The tour is history-heavy and will bore children under ten, so families do better combining a look through the gate, the library and the Backs, then eating in town. Cambridge Central Mosque on Mill Road, Europe's best-known eco-mosque, is about 25 minutes on foot. In exam season, roughly mid-April to mid-June, and on event days, access may be restricted, so check the college website or ring the Porters' Lodge before you come.