Cambridgeshire

The University of Cambridge (legal name: The Chancellor, Masters, and Scholars of the University of Cambridge) is a collegiate research university in Cambridge, United Kingdom. Founded in 1209 and granted a royal charter by King Henry III in 1231, Cambridge is the second-oldest university in the English-speaking world and the world’s fourth-oldest surviving university. The university grew out of an association of scholars who left the University of Oxford after a dispute with the townspeople. The two English ancient universities share many common features and are often referred to jointly as Oxbridge.

Cambridge is formed from a variety of institutions which include 31 semi-autonomous constituent colleges and over 150 academic departments, faculties and other institutions organised into six schools. All the colleges are self-governing institutions within the university, each controlling its own membership and with its own internal structure and activities. All students are members of a college. Cambridge does not have a main campus, and its colleges and central facilities are scattered throughout the city.
Wikipedia.

Website.

Christ College Gateway, Cambridge.
Postmarked 1913.
“Cantab Series”

Christ’s College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college includes the Master, the Fellows of the College, and about 450 undergraduate and 170 graduate students. The college was founded by William Byngham in 1437 as God’s House. In 1505, the college was granted a new royal charter, was given a substantial endowment by Lady Margaret Beaufort, and changed its name to Christ’s College, becoming the twelfth of the Cambridge colleges to be founded in its current form. The college is renowned for educating some of Cambridge’s most famous alumni, including Charles Darwin and John Milton.
Wikipedia.

Clare College & bridge

Corpus Christi College. Cambridge.
Postmarked 1906
Publisher: Stengel & Co, Dresden

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Cambridge. St John’s Gate & Divinity School.
Postmarked 1907
Publisher: Boots Cash Chemist

St John’s College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge (the full, formal name of the college is the College of St John the Evangelist in the University of Cambridge) founded by the Tudor matriarch Lady Margaret Beaufort. . . . The site was originally occupied by the Hospital of St John the Evangelist, probably founded around 1200. The hospital infirmary was located where the east end of the current chapel now stands. By 1470 Thomas Rotherham Chancellor of the university, extended to the hospital the privileges of membership of the university. This led to St. John’s House, as it was then known, being conferred the status of a college. By the early 16th century the hospital was dilapidated and suffering from a lack of funds. Lady Margaret Beaufort, having endowed Christ’s College sought to found a new college, and chose the hospital site at the suggestion of John Fisher, her chaplain and Bishop of Rochester. 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, by which time held only a Master and three Augustinian brethren, and convert it to a college.

The college received its charter on 9 April 1511. Further complications arose in obtaining money from the estate of Lady Margaret to pay for the foundation and it was not until 22 October 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 hall were 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 twelve courts, the most of any Oxford or Cambridge College.
Wikipedia.

Bridge of Sighs.

Entrance Gate. St John’s College. Cambridge.
On back:
Entrance Gate, St. John’s College.–This is the second largest College in Cambridge, and was founded in 1511 on the site of St. John’s Hospital, which dated from the 12th century. Part of the College buildings overlook the river, which is spanned by two bridges belonging to St John’s, one the famous “Bridge of Sighs.”
Postmarked 1931.
Publisher: Raphael Tuck & Sons

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Cambridge. Clare College.
Dated & postmarked 1922
Publisher: Francis Frith & Co, Reigate

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Clare College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge in Cambridge, England. The college was founded in 1326 as University Hall, making it the second-oldest surviving college of the University after Peterhouse. It was refounded in 1338 as Clare Hall by an endowment from Elizabeth de Clare, and took on its current name in 1856. Clare is famous for its chapel choir and for its gardens on “The Backs” (the back of the colleges that overlook the River Cam).
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Clare College Bridge, Cambridge.
Postmarked 1906.

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