Homerton College
University of Cambridge
The Cavendish Building, Homerton College
Arms: Argent, a leopard's face jessant-de-lys sable between three griffins' heads erased gules; on a bordure azure eight open books proper.
Scarf colours: navy, with two equally-spaced narrow white stripes
Location	Hills Road (map)
Abbreviation	HO[1]
Motto	Respice Finem (Latin)
Motto in English	Look to the end
Established	1768
Named after	Homerton, London, UK
Previous names	Homerton Academy (1768–1852) Training Institution of theCongregational Board of Education (1852–1894)
Sister colleges	Harris Manchester College, Oxford Mansfield College, Oxford
Principal	Lord Woolley of Woodford
Undergraduates	618 (2022–23)
Postgraduates	746 (2022–23)
Endowment	£148m(2021)[2]
Website	www.homerton.cam.ac.uk
JCR	hus-jcr.co.uk
MCR	homerton-mcr.co.uk
Boat club	homerton.cam.ac.uk/homerton-life/sports/homerton-college-boat-club-hcbc/
Map
Location in Cambridge

Homerton College is aconstituent college of theUniversity of Cambridge. Its first premises were acquired inHomerton, London in 1768, by an informal gathering ofProtestant dissenters with origins in the seventeenth century. In 1894, the college moved from Homerton High Street, Hackney, London, toCambridge. Homerton was admitted as an "Approved Society" of the university in 1976, and received itsRoyal charter in 2010, affirming its status as a full college of the university. The college celebrated its 250th anniversary in 2018.^[3]

With around 600undergraduates, 750 postgraduates, and 90fellows, it has more students than any other Cambridge college but, because only half of those are resident undergraduates, its undergraduate presence is similar to large colleges such asTrinity andSt John's. The college has particularly strong ties to public service, as well as academia, having educated many prominent dissenting thinkers, educationalists, politicians, and missionary explorers.^[4]

The college has extensive grounds which encompass sports fields, water features and beehives, and the focal point of the college, its Victorian Gothic hall. It also has a wide range of student clubs and societies, includingHomerton College Boat Club, Homerton College Music Society and the Homerton College Rugby Football Club.

The college's origins date back to the seventeenth century. In 1695, a Congregation Fund was created in London to educateCalvinist ministers. As non-conformists, they were barred by law from attendingOxbridge colleges, and so studied a modern curriculum, with particular emphasis on philosophy, science, and modern history.^[5] In 1730, a formal society – known as theKing's Head Society after the pub at theRoyal Exchange where they held their meetings – was founded to sponsor young men to attenddissenting academies. Today, asecret society and discussion club at the college of the same name maintains some of its traditions. By 1768, the Society was large enough to need its own premises, so it purchased a large property in Homerton High Street, in London'sEast End.^[6]

By 1817, the institution had become known as "Homerton Academy Society", later "Homerton College Society". At that time, it produced some of the nation's foremost dissenting figures, many closely involved in the movements opposed to theslave trade and theCorn Laws.^[7] For several years, the college was affiliated to theUniversity of London, but when its theological function was moved to New College London in 1850, it was re-founded by theCongregational Board of Education to concentrate on thestudy of education itself. It did so by transferring its theological courses toNew College London, of which theRev. John Harris DD was the Congregationalist Principal, and by extending and rebuilding the old mansion house and 1820s buildings of the academy, at a cost of £10,000. The college reopened in April 1852 as the Training Institution of the Congregational Board of Education, withSamuel Morley as its treasurer. Shortly afterwards, it began admitting women students. Then PrincipalJohn Horobin called an end to mixed education in 1896, shortly after the move to Cambridge, and the college remained all-women for 80 years thereafter.^[8]

Towards the end of the century, the growth of industry had turned the village of Homerton into a manufacturing centre, lowering the quality of life of the students and, between 1878 and 1885, there were seven deaths fromtuberculosis,smallpox andtyphoid. At the same time, increasing numbers of students required more space.^{[citation needed]}

In 1881, former students of Homerton College who were members of Glyn Cricket Club formed a football section to help keep their players fit during the winter months. The football section continued to grow over the ensuing years and is nowLeyton Orient Football Club – a fact acknowledged by an annual match between the college's football team and that of the Leyton Orient Supporters Club.^[9]

In 1894, the Congregational Board of Education were able to purchase the estate ofCavendish College, Cambridge (named after the then-Chancellor of the university and not to be confused withLucy Cavendish College) which had become available. It had been founded to allow poorer students to sit Cambridgetripos exams without the expense of joining a true Cambridge college. It was briefly recognised as a "Public Hostel" of the university in 1882, but a lack of money had brought the venture to an end.

All its estates and furniture were bought for £10,000 by the Congregational Board, and students and staff moved from the old Hackney premises into the vacant college buildings atCambridge. Initially taking the name of Homerton New College at Cavendish College, it shortly afterwards became just Homerton College, Cambridge. John Charles Horobin became the first Principal: his portrait hangs in the college's Great Hall.^[10]

The first woman to head the college was Mary Miller Allan, who was responsible for Homerton's national reputation as a trainer of women teachers.^[11] Her successor in 1935 was Miss Alice Skillicorn, a former HMI, who took the college through World War Two, during which time it was bombed.^[12] DameBeryl Paston Brown was Principal in the 1960s, at a time when Homerton's numbers doubled after the introduction of three-year training courses in 1960.^[13]

On Wednesday November 13, 1974, a 18-year-old female, fromWarwickshire, was raped in college grounds, after being taken from the college music room.^[14] In the next week the rapist had tried to attack in New Hall College on May 5, 1975, but was not successful.^[15] The rapist was caught in an attack at the nurses home at Owlstone Croft on June 8, 1975, of a 27-year-old woman.

47-year-old van-driverPeter Samuel Cook, of Limes End inHardwick, Cambridgeshire, was arrested for seven rapes on June 9, 1975, investigated by Det Supt Bernard Hotson. Outside the court in Cambridge, 50 women had run down the street and screamed abuse. The rapist had a lengthy previous criminal record, and had previously served time in Dartmoor.^[16][17] Cook pleaded guilty to six charges of rape, and one charge of buggery, at Norwich Court in October 1975, and received two life sentences for several rapes from October 1974, across Cambridge, byMelford Stevenson, who had sentenced eight Cambridge students in theGarden House riot, five years earlier. Cook died in prison, aged 75, in January 2004.

In December 1976, under the headship of Principal Alison Cheveley Shrubsole,^[18] Homerton was accepted as an Approved Society of the University of Cambridge following a 3–1 vote of theRegent House in favour of its admission. The possibility of introducing a CambridgeBachelor of Education (BEd) degree had been given as one of the reasons for the original move into Cambridge. It was after the shake-up and governmental criticisms of teacher training in the early 1970s that the university admitted Homerton because, by then, all of its students were doing four-year honours courses.

In late 2000, the Regent House approved a proposal to "converge" Homerton with the rest of the university.^[19] Convergence involved the transfer of most of the college's teaching and research activity to the newUniversity of Cambridge Faculty of Education and the diversification of the college into a wide range of Tripos subjects. In September 2001, Homerton admitted its first non-education Tripos students. At the same time the old BEd degree was retired in favour of a three-year B.A. in education, followed by a one-year Post Graduate Certificate of Education.

At the time of convergence, it was envisaged that Homerton would move from the status of Approved Society to that of Approved Foundation or full college. In December 2008 Homerton's application to move to full college status was approved by the University Council.^[20] The change in status was completed with the grant of a Royal Charter on 11 March 2010.

The original Victorian Cavendish College buildings were constructed in 1876 in theGothic Revival style, using a combination of red Suffolk brick and Bath stone dressings. One of the most notable features is an oak doorway with an ogee arch flanked above by ornamental grotesques.^[5] Several years later, the Cambridge architect William Wren designed additions to the eastern end of the college buildings in theNeo-Gothic style – now occupied by the Principal's office.^[5] The castellated tower is the tallest part of the original college buildings, and it is possible to see the spires ofEly Cathedral on a clear day from its uppermost floor.^[21]

When it was built in 1889, the Great Hall was the largest college hall in Cambridge.^[22] It now houses one of the college's most notable works of art – thePre-Raphaelite piece byJane Benham Hay known as 'The Florentine Procession', painted in the 1860s and winning 'Picture of the Year' in the 1867Saturday Review.^[23] Encircling the Hall are portraits of former Principals of the college.^[24]

The Hall features a hammer-beam roof, American walnut panelling, a gallery, rose windows, a fleche,^[5] and a bell originating from the old college in London which sounds before the College Grace is read at Formal dinner. A new dining hall was designed byFeilden Fowles and opened in 2022;^[25][26]Rowan Moore named it as one of his five best buildings of the year.^[27]

Other notable buildings of the college include the Ibberson Building, built in 1914, and named after its architectHerbert George Ibberson. It is considered to be the college's most significant building; with Grade Two listed status, the only listed building on the site. An example ofarts and crafts architecture, its present-day Combination Room was probably the only grade two listed gymnasium in the world.^[6] Trumpington House, completed in 1847 and which once held the college's wine collection in its basement, was built in the style of classical revival and is currently leased to the Faculty of Education.^[21] Additionally, there is a science education centre named in honour ofJohn Hammond, who campaigned for the college to receive its Royal Charter.^[28]

Homerton's library includes thousands of books covering numerous academic disciplines. Unique to Homerton, however, is a children's book collection, which contains early editions of many famous books from 1780 onwards.^[29]

Homerton has more green space around its buildings than many other Cambridge colleges. In its grounds are several rare examples of wildorchids and over 150 species of plants, which act as a rich habitat for various forms of wildlife – includinggrey squirrels,carrion crows,woodpeckers,stock doves, rabbits, the 'Collegefox', and in the summer a small colony ofswifts, which nest under the eaves of the roof of the Cavendish building after their return from Africa.^[30] There is also a largeorchard, where students relax in warm weather.

Like the majority of Cambridge colleges, Homerton offers on-site accommodation for its students for all three years. This is provided primarily by five purpose-built accommodation buildings: East House, West House, South Court, Harrison House and Morley House. Harrison House and Morley House exclusively house graduate students and fellows; Harrison was opened in November 2006, and Morley in 2016. Harrison is named after SirDavid Harrison. Other accommodation is provided in the ABC and D&E blocks, both part of the main college buildings, as well as in Queen's Wing (opened byQueen Elizabeth the Queen Mother in 1957^[31]) which also contains the Homerton Union of Students and both the Undergraduate and Graduate Common Rooms.

Outside of university terms, the accommodation attracts extensive use for conference purposes.^[32]

Homerton has several unique traditions. At its Matriculation Dinner new undergraduates are made to form two lines and drink wine from the 'Homerton Horn' – an African cow horn with silver mounts, whilst speaking severalAnglo-Saxon phrases to one another (including the greeting "Wassail!", and the response "Frith and Freondship sae th'y'" – 'peace and friendship be with you').^[33] In recent years, the tradition has been adapted so that undergraduates say these Anglo-Saxon phrases to the person sat across from them on the table, and take subsequent drinks from their own glasses, rather than every undergraduate drinking from the ceremonial horn, which has historically resulted in epidemics of 'Freshers Flu'.

Because the college was all-female for much of its history, the design of the college gown is that of those traditionally worn by female undergraduates in early twentieth century Cambridge (this is shared by all the historically female colleges: Girton, Newnham, and Murray Edwards). The gown is based on the original Cambridge black gown, still worn by undergraduates at Peterhouse, but has the slits in the sleeves closed up. As a homage to its all-female origins, or simply because the college has never had one re-designed, this gown is now worn by all undergraduates at the college regardless of sex.^[34]

The Homerton Union of Students is one of the most activestudent unions in the university. The President – the only paid, sabbatical Presidency of all the Cambridge colleges – manages, along with a Vice-President Internal and a Vice President External, a team of students on the executive committee and a team of 'Liberation officers'. Together, they organise 'Freshers Week'. Homerton's Fresher's week is longer than in most colleges, where students only have two to three days of 'Freshers week' before the start of term. They also organise events throughout the year for students, as well as offer pastoral support.^{[citation needed]}

From 2015 until 2020 the HUS organized an annual and immensely popularHarry Potter Formal Hall, at which students and staff would dress as characters from the books, sketches would be acted, and live owls were brought in for entertainment. Formal halls were suspended in 2021 owing to theCOVID-19 pandemic, but returned in 2022.^[35] Homerton's Harry Potter Formal Halls were discontinued in 2023 when an incoming HUS president allegedly objected to their connection withJ. K. Rowling and hergender critical views.^[36]

The college holds an annualMay Ball in Cambridge. In 2018, the ball was attended by over 1500 guests, the largest ever hosted on Homerton's grounds, to celebrate the college's 250th anniversary.^{[citation needed]}

The college's Charter Choir singevensong every Tuesday and is formed of choral scholars and volunteers from the college and the wider community. The choir tours abroad once a year, recently travelling to Portsmouth, Gibraltar and Iceland. The choir is directed by Daniel Trocmé-Latter, the Music Director of Studies at the college.

Homerton College Boat Club (HCBC) is the rowing club of the college. HCBC colours are navy blue with white trim, although the club'sZephyr (garment) is white with blue trim. The blade colour is white with a single blue (RAL-290-20-30) vertical stripe. It is traditional to wear a sock of each of the boat club's colours when racing with a blue sock on the foot opposite the rigger.

The Men's 1st VIII hold theOxbridge record for the most places advanced during one series of bumps (eitherMays,Lents, orTorpids/Eights for Oxford), advancing 13 places in theMay Bumps 2001, where the crew moved up a division to division 3 and also won blades.^[37]

In 2022, Homerton made offers to five students, who are among more than 50 candidates from backgrounds of educational disadvantage to be offered a place on theUniversity of Cambridge's first-ever pre-degree foundation year.^[38]

Principals, treasurers, fellows (including honorary fellows) or students who studied at Homerton Academy or Homerton College before and after it officially became part of Cambridge University. Graduates of the college are collectively known asHomertonians.

• 
  Olivia Colman, English actress. (Matriculated; did not graduate)
• 
  SirPeter Maxwell Davies, Honorary Fellow. English composer and conductor;Master of the Queen's Music.
• 
  DameCarol Ann Duffy, Honorary Fellow. British poet and playwright;Poet laureate from 2009 to 2019
• 
  William Johnson Fox, English religious and political orator.
• 
  DameEvelyn Glennie, Honorary Fellow. Scottish virtuoso multi-percussionist.
• 
  Leah Manning, British educationalist, social reformer, andMember of Parliament (MP).
• 
  Tamzin Merchant, English actress.
• 
  Samuel Morley (MP), English manufacturer, philanthropist, dissenter, abolitionist, political radical, and statesman.
• 
  SirAndrew Motion, Honorary Fellow. English poet, novelist, and biographer;Poet laureate from 1999 to May 2009.

A list of Homerton principals since the college moved to Cambridge in 1894:

• Edwards, Elizabeth (14 January 2004).Women in Teacher Training Colleges, 1900–1960: A Culture of Femininity. Routledge.ISBN 0-415-21475-0.
• Simms, T.H. (1979).Homerton College 1695–1978. Trustees of Homerton College.
• Warner, Dr Peter.Lecture on the history of Homerton College (Michaelmas term 2004)
• Raby, P.; Warner, P. (2010).Homerton: The Evolution of a Cambridge College. Principal and Fellows of Homerton College.

Wikimedia Commons has media related toHomerton College, Cambridge.

• Homerton College website
• Homerton College JCR website
• Homerton College MCR website (Graduate Society)

52°11′11″N0°08′12″E / 52.1864°N 0.1366°E /52.1864; 0.1366

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