Cambridge University

Its not easy to find the right time to visit Cambridge. Term time you get all the students (not unreasonably!), but out of term you get the tourists. Summer you get the weather which makes the place particularly attractive, but also even more tourists. And at weekends, yes more tourists still. So I went for a Monday in August, since I don't work Mondays, which should be a fair compromise. Except that the Museums all close on a Monday because, well because that's the way they are and this isn't London.

So I will have to return another day to visit the Polar Museum, which curiously has a big bronze statue of a man with no clothes on at the front of it. Not the most obvious thing to associate with Scott of the Antarctic. (On the other hand, next door is a Catholic Primary School, so a naked man exposing himself seems more explicable doesn't it?)

 And especially to see the Fitzwilliam Museum. Free, but just not open.

Anyway, I knew this before setting off, so my plan was to wander around a few of the colleges in the nice weather, albeit armed with mac and umbrella for the predicted (but non-existent) showers and visit the Museum of Classical Archaeology (which is open on a Monday, but not at weekends - see what I mean about never getting a perfect time to visit?)

So first up, Corpus Christi.

 New Court has the precision one would expect from a Georgian building. Very pleasing on the eye, especially with the sun shining on the warm coloured stonework.

Just behind it is the Bursar's Garden, which forms a welcoming cozy retreat from the wide-open quad.

 Back into New Court again...

For access into the Chapel

 Then in marked contrast, Old Court, which dates from the 1350s and is the oldest enclosed medieval court in either of the University cities. It does have great character.

 One of it's most famous residents was Christopher Marlowe, whose presence doesn't go unremarked.

 They have also managed to squeeze in a new court - the Henry LS Kwee Court - out of an old service yard.

So much for Corpus Christi then. The change I got out of a tenner for visiting that was reinvested in full to visit possibly Cambridge's most famous attraction, King's College Chapel.

The Chapel is  a fine example of what almost limitless funds and limitless time can produce. Its construction traversed a number of monarchs who endowed it richly as reflection on their personal glory, Henry V!! notable amongst them. Its a brilliant Tudor vanity project. On the one hand one has to be grateful as it has left us an architectural masterpiece. On the other hand, it is just so utterly marvellous but totally out of scale to purpose (for a few students to pray in) that one might have wished for the largesse to have been spread a little more thinly and we could have a few more survivals from the period.

The fan-vaulting is just superb.

 The carving is all high-quality and very, very deep.

 In addition to the chapel one does get to admire the exterior of King's.  Majestic in scale.

 And the college backs onto the Cam.

And then there are fields beyond.

 One has to say it all looks quite stunning on a sunny day.

Time for a different perspective. The University's Church is Great St Mary's which sits close to King's Chapel overlooking the Market Square. Nothing to exciting inside, but one can climb up the tower, all 123 spiral steps of it. Rather claustrophobic. But worth it for the views over the city.

Sauntering on a little further one passes Trinity College (closed to visitors) on the way down to St John's.

 Despite the warning from a passing tramp that they will charge me a fiver to go in (still a rather better deal than giving it to him for a six-pack of Stella), having attended St John's Oxford I naturally wanted to compare it to it's Cambridge namesake. Actually I think it was the most enjoyable of the colleges I visited on the day - even its leaflet was just a cut above the rest. Worth the fiver.

First you come into First Court. Not very inventive, but logical, to which the chapel is attached.

The Chapel is a Victorian construct, designed by Sir George Gilbert Scott.

 The tomb of Hugh Ashton. He doesn't look well.

Out into the open and one comes to Chapel Court

 Next up is Second Court. Top brickwork.

Through, or at least, under, the Shrewsbury Tower to the Third Court (you see the logic).

  And one comes out to the river, with its Bridge of Sighs. Picturesque. This we lacked in Oxford.

Into New Court, which was completed in 1831, so only comparatively new. But very attractive.

Oh yes, and like St John's Oxford there is a lot of twentieth century building too. But that was all covered in hoardings as it was being refurbished. Because of of course things built in the Sixties and Seventies were rubbish, however many architectural awards they won. Not only did they look hideous, but they were also badly designed functionally and shoddily built. So they need reconstruction within a few years of construction. Obviously tearing down and starting again would be the sensible option.