Newnham College, Cambridge
| Newnham College | |
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| University | Cambridge University |
| Location | Sidgwick Avenue (map) |
| Founders |
Henry Sidgwick Millicent Fawcett |
| Established | 1871 |
| Named for | Newnham village |
| Previous names | Newnham Hall |
| Gender | Women |
| Sister college | Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford |
| Principal | Dame Carol Black |
| Undergraduates | 398 |
| Postgraduates | 148 |
| Website | www |
| JCR | www |
| MCR | www |
| Boat club | www |
Newnham College is a women-only constituent college of the University of Cambridge.
The college was founded in 1871 by Henry Sidgwick, and was the second Cambridge college to admit women after Girton College. The co-founder of the college was Millicent Garrett Fawcett.
The history of Newnham begins with the formation of the Association for Promoting the Higher Education of Women in Cambridge in 1869. The progress of women at Cambridge University owes much to the pioneering work undertaken by the philosopher Henry Sidgwick, fellow of Trinity. Lectures for Ladies had been started in Cambridge in 1869, and such was the demand from those who could not travel in and out on a daily basis that in 1871 Sidgwick, one of the organisers of the lectures, rented a house at 74, Regent Street to house five female students who wished to attend lectures but did not live near enough to the University to do so. He persuaded Anne Jemima Clough, who had previously run a school in the Lake District, to take charge of this house. The following year (1872), this moved to Merton House (built c1800) on Queen's Road, then to premises in Bateman Street.
Demand continued to increase and the supporters of the enterprise formed a limited company to raise funds, lease land and build on it. in 1875 the first building for Newnham College was built on the site off Sidgwick Avenue where the college remains. In 1876 Henry Sidgwick married Elizabeth Balfour who was already a supporter of women's education. They lived at Newnham from 1893.
The college formally came into existence in 1880 with the amalgamation of the Association and the Company. Women were admitted to titles of degrees from 1881.
The demand from prospective students remained buoyant and the Newnham Hall Company built steadily, providing three more halls, a laboratory and a library, in the years up to the First World War. The architect Basil Champneys was employed throughout this period and designed the buildings in the Queen Anne style to much acclaim, giving the main college buildings an extraordinary unity. These and later buildings are grouped around beautiful gardens, which many visitors to Cambridge never discover, and, unlike most Cambridge colleges, students may walk on the grass for most of the year.
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Wikipedia