Wolfson College

Wolfson began in 1965 as University College, set up to house the growing number of postgraduates who came to Cambridge for research after the Second World War. It took over Bredon House, a property built in the early 20th century for a zoology professor, with a long narrow garden stretching between Barton Road and Selwyn Gardens. It was the first college in the university to admit men and women as both students and fellows. When the Wolfson Foundation underwrote an endowment in 1972, the college was renamed Wolfson College on 1 January 1973.

What to look for

• A college without a High Table. From the outset there has been no Senior Combination Room and no High Table, so fellows and students dine together. The college describes itself as international, egalitarian and inclusive.
• The entrance hall floor. It is paved with thin slices of granite taken from the old London Bridge, whose main section was shipped to Arizona and rebuilt there in the late 1960s.
• The Lee Library. The library dates from 1994 and offers more than sixty quiet study spaces, with round-the-clock access throughout the year. The ground-floor foyer displays a miniature of the armillary sphere that crowns the Peking Observatory.
• The gardens. A mulberry tree outside the Porters' Lodge survives from the older gardens of the Selwyn Gardens houses, and the grounds hold many kinds of trees, scented shrubs and dwarf conifers. During the summer the college also welcomes visitors to its gardens through the NGS Open Gardens network.

Buildings and benefactors

The founding deed gave University College ten years to find an endowment or face dissolution. The central buildings and the East and West Courts, designed by Michael Mennim and grouped around two main courts like those of older colleges, were opened by Queen Elizabeth II and the Duke of Edinburgh in 1977. Later additions followed through donations: the college bought the neighbouring house and garden on its western side in the 1980s, and in the 1990s, with help from the Gatsby Foundation, it acquired the western field, where the Chancellor's Centre and more student housing were put up. The Lee Seng Tee Library and Hall were funded by the Singaporean philanthropist whose name they carry.

Without High Table

From 1965 the college had no Senior Combination Room, no High Table reserved for fellows at formal dinners and no portraits in the Dining Hall. The Club Room doubles as a bar and dance floor in the evening and a café by day, and the college is known for concerts, dances and a comedy night, the Wolfson Howler.

Practical notes

The college is on Barton Road in Newnham, west of the centre and near the Sidgwick and West Cambridge sites and the University Library. Visitors arriving by car should leave it in the car park and check in at the Porters' Lodge. For garden opening dates, look up the college in the NGS Open Gardens listings or ask the Porters.