Introducing Selwyn

A month or so ago we visited Sidney, or in other words we had a look around Sidney Sussex College. You may remember that we found the old fellow hiding behind a rather nondescript door opposite Sainsbury's supermarket. Today I'll introduce you to Selwyn, or rather Selwyn College, who resides in a much leafier part of town.

Immediately you enter through Selwyn's gatehouse you are confronted by the college chapel. In general shape it echoes the structure of the much bigger and more famous King's College Chapel, but there the similarities end. Cambridge colleges fall into two groups, the old and the new. This is because no colleges at all were founded between 1596 and 1800 in Cambridge. So, while "Sidney" is one of the old codgers, "Selwyn" is a new upstart, dating from 1878.

So lets first visit the Chapel, avoiding walking on the grass by following the path past the Hall, which was added by the architects Grayson & Ould in 1908-09. The style is Victorian Gothic Revival, harking back to the style of earlier college buildings, as is the Chapel itself. 

The Chapel, although smaller than the massive King's College Chapel, is nevertheless large for the size of the college. Perhaps this is a reflection of the way in which the college was founded. The "Selwyn", after whom it's named, is George Augustus Selwyn, the first Bishop of New Zealand (and later of Lichfield). It was founded, not by Selwyn himself, but in his honour by the Selwyn Memorial Committee which was set up following his death. There are also Selwyn Colleges in Auckland and Otago.  

The college was originally only for Christian men and especially those who were the sons of clergy or who were planning to take up missionary work. The Chapel, as you've seen already, is very grand with lots of fine carved wood.

Again it recalls earlier architectural styles and there are even imitations of medieval carved bench-ends on the choir stalls. Some of them, like the one on the right above, look as though they might be caricatures.

Despite all this grandeur, Sir Nikolas Pevsner, in his great work on English architecture, dimisses the Chapel with faint praise - "tall and not bad". 

There is a very striking and highly-polished brass lectern of conventional eagle design... 

.....which gives nice fisheye-lens style reflections of the interior, including the modern but traditional Karin Jonzen sculptures beneath the east window.

Rather oddly the view looking back from the altar is even more grand than that when you enter, with the huge expanses of carved woodwork surrounding the mighty organ.

But now it's time we wandered outside into the sunlight and went in search of the gardens.

*****

It's the Horse, of course....

My recent post about the works of sculpture on display in Jesus College asked for your opinions of the various pieces. It was a bit of a non-contest really as many of you (but by no means all) went with Barry Flanagan's sculpture of the horse.

However there was also considerable support for "This And This And This", or the Triangles as many of you re-named it, by Eva Rothschild, which was also my personal favourite. Interestingly none of us could really say what it was that we liked about it. 

Thanks to all you who offered your views which are always interesting.

Take care.