The Old Schools, Cambridge — University offices on the medieval schools site

The University's medieval schools quadrangle and the first home of King's College, now its administrative centre.

The Old Schools is a group of historic buildings in the middle of Cambridge, owned by the University and used for its offices. It is Grade I listed and stands at the end of Trinity Lane, close to the Senate House and King's College.

Two courts

The site has two parts. Cobble Court, to the east, was built in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries to house the earliest university schools. West Court, to the west, started life in 1441 as King's College's first quadrangle. King's no longer needed the court by 1829, when the University bought it.

Schools and library

The north range of the schools quadrangle, with the divinity school and the Regent House, was finished by 1400. A west range with a library above the canon law school followed by 1438, a south range between 1458 and 1471, and an east range in 1473. Stephen Wright rebuilt the east side in a classical style between 1754 and 1758, next to the new Senate House.

The University library grew steadily through the site as books arrived, and by 1903 it filled both quadrangles. In the nineteenth century Charles Robert Cockerell added a grand classical north wing, George Gilbert Scott built a new south range in 1867, and John Loughborough Pearson linked the two in 1890 around the old King's College gatehouse.

From library to offices

The library moved to a purpose-built home in the 1930s, taking some 1,142,000 books with it in 1934. Murray Easton then converted the vacated buildings into offices, ceremonial rooms and department libraries, with the work largely done by 1935. Cockerell's wing has housed the Gonville and Caius College library since 1997.

Practical notes

The Old Schools is the working centre of University administration. Senate House Passage and St Mary's Street run alongside it, and the University Library, where the books went, stands to the west of the centre.