Emmanuel College

]] The college was founded in 1584 by Sir Walter Mildmay, Chancellor of the Exchequer to Elizabeth I. The site had been occupied by Cambridge Blackfriars, a Dominican friary, until the Dissolution of the Monasteries 45 years earlier, after which the Vice-Chancellor petitioned that the place be given over to the University; his request was refused. After passing through several hands, the former monastery was purchased for £550 to be the site of the new college in June 1583 by Laurence Chaderton, the Master-elect, and his brother-in-law, Richard Culverwell, acting on behalf of Mildmay, to whom they conveyed the property on 23 November 1583. Mildmay's foundation made use of the existing…

Under Mildmay's instructions the chapel of the original Dominican Friary was converted into the College's dining hall and the friars' dining hall became a chapel. In the late 17th century the College commissioned a new chapel, one of the three buildings in Cambridge designed by Christopher Wren (1677). After Wren's construction was opened the old chapel became the College library until it outgrew the space. The library moved to its present space in 1930, occupying a large building in South Court completed in 1911 and initially used as lecture rooms. The library was extended in 1974. There is a large fish pond in the grounds, part of the legacy of the friary. The pond is home to a colony of…