New Court, St John's

New Court, belongs to St John’s College, and it was designed by Thomas Rickman and Henry Hutchinson was completed in 1831.

It was the first major college building that has been placed on the west side of the river that time.

The Gothic-style cupola called ‘The Wedding Cake’ provides a breathtaking and magical experience for tourist at sunrise or sunset.

St John’s College

The college is 508 years old this year. It was founded by Lady Margaret Beaufort, grandmother to King Henry VIII. But she was dead when most of the real founding took place and it was largely done on her behalf by St John Fisher. Counter-intuitively not whom the college is named after. It’s named for John the Evangelist as there was originally a John the Evangelist hospital here that had to be suppressed before they built the college. They had a hard time doing that. They had to get permission from the Pope to close the hospital and also had to fight a battle in court to access Lady Margaret’s estate after her death. And then John Fisher got on the wrong side of Henry VIII and very quickly became St John Fisher. The Church tried to save Fisher’s life by promoting him to the rank of Cardinal. They said the king would never dare execute a prince of the Church… they were wrong.