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( St John's College, Cambridge)
St John's College The college was founded on the site of the 13th century Hospital of St John in Cambridge at the suggestion of Saint John Fisher, Bishop of Rochester and chaplain to Lady Margaret. However, Lady Margaret died without having mentioned the foundation of St John's in her will, and it was largely the work of Fisher that ensured that the college was founded. He had to obtain the approval of King Henry VIII of England, the Pope through the intermediary Polydore Vergil, and the Bishop of Ely to suppress the religious hospital and convert it to a college. The college received its charter on April 9, 1511. Further complications arose in obtaining money from the estate of Lady Margaret to pay for the foundation and it was not until October 22, 1512 that a codicil was obtained in the court of the Archbishop of Canterbury. In November 1512 the Court of Chancery allowed Lady Margaret's executors to pay for the foundation of the college from her estates. When Lady Margaret's executors took over they found most of the old Hospital buildings beyond repair, but repaired and incorporated the Chapel into the new college. A kitchen and were Hall added, and an imposing gate tower was constructed for the College Treasury. The doors were to be closed each day at dusk, sealing the monastic community from the outside world. Over the course of the following five hundred years, the College expanded westwards towards the River Cam, and now has eleven courts, the most of any Oxford or Cambridge College. The benefactor Henry Hoare offered a downpayment of £3000 to finance the chapel's construction, in addition to which he promised to pay £1000 a year if a tower were added to Scott's original plans, which had included only a diminuitive fleche. Work began, but Mr Hoare's unexpected death in a railway accident left the college without £3000 of his expected benefaction. The tower, based on Pershore Abbey, was thus left without bells, its louvres purely decorative.[7] The finished tower is 50 metres high, making it the tallest structure in Cambridge (followed by the Cambridge University Library and King's College Chapel). The Chapel's antechamber contains statues of Margaret Beaufort and John Fisher, the niches around the building commemorating other College benefactors. Inside the building is a stone-vaulted antechapel, at the end of which hangs a 'Deposition of the Cross' by Anton Rafael Mengs, completed around 1777. Freestanding statues and plaques commemorate College benefactors such as James Wood, Master 1815-39, as well as alumni who include William Wilberforce, Thomas Clarkson and William Gilbert. Students at the College are among the only members of the University able to climb the College tower, which is accessed via a small door on First Court.
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