The Chapel and the Master’s Lodge can be seen as forming the core of the Old Courts, as their entry doors have faced one another across the passage that connects Caius Court with Gonville Court since 1570. 

The Chapel was built in 1353-89 after Gonville Hall moved to this site from its original location near what is today Free School Lane. It is at an irregular angle to the other three sides of the Court because it roughly followed the course of Henneye Lane that ran along its south side. It was first completed in 1389 but its present form follows at least three phases of extending and remodelling: firstly by John Westley in 1637; then by John James in 1718-26 when the northern side took on its present external appearance; and then by Alfred Waterhouse shortly after his appointment to build the new range along Trinity Street. It was Waterhouse who added the Romanesque apse with its Salviati mosaics which forms part of his remodelled western range of Tree Court; he also remodelled the chapel’s elevation along the Caius Court side with its little arched and domed turret, a memento of what the College had called ‘the Sacred Tower’, a long gone feature seen in David Loggan’s view of 1690. 

The interior of the chapel has an intimate, intensive feeling, in part because of the combination of its narrow proportions with the powerful sculptural and decorative elements of its interior. The most striking of these is the monument to Dr John Caius, commissioned by Caius himself in time for his death in 1573. The monument was designed by Theodore Haveus of Cleves, the architect who apparently worked with Caius on the design of the Gate of Honour. This monument was originally on the floor of the chapel but was raised onto the northern wall in 1637 when the richly ornamented panelled ceiling was installed below a new timber roof. The other major monuments commemorate two benefactors who followed Caius, Drs Legge and Perse. 

Across the passage lies the Master’s Lodge, which like much of Gonville Court is the result of centuries of work by architects of different styles and periods. The oldest parts of the building fabric, at the entrance door end, were built around 1440 but these have been submerged by accumulated additions. In 1795 William Wilkins senior, father of the Caian who designed many large early nineteenth-century buildings in Cambridge, built the grey-brick wing facing the garden which still contains the lodge’s formal entertaining rooms. In 1853 Anthony Salvin completed a red-brick wing towards the Trinity Lane end. In the 1990s, John Simpson added a library to the lodge in the form of ranges of ornamental bookcases on both the ground and first floor. Some internal alterations, for example a staircase by Waterhouse in 1869, have already vanished under later work. 

The entrance area with its panelling and adjacent staircase are by E.P Warren, carried out together with his various changes to the Hall and combination rooms next door; the bay window to the study facing the garden is by E.S. Prior, another Caian and the founder of what became the University’s Department of Architecture. The pre-Waterhouse Gate of Humility is located in the south-eastern corner of the Master’s Garden. 

ARCHITECTS 

John James (c.1673-1746) was a prolific early eighteenth century architect and highly regarded building surveyor who worked on the design of many new houses and, mostly, on alterations to churches. He seems to have been well connected socially and many of his works were either alterations to, or altered by, other well known architects of the period. One of the best known of these buildings was the Orleans House in Twickenham, Middlesex, demolished in 1927, but his own house, Warbrook near Eversley in Hampshire, has survived with some twentieth-century additions. 

Edward Schroeder Prior (1852-1932) won a scholarship to the College, entering in 1870 and distinguishing himself also as an athlete. He entered the office of Richard Norman Shaw in 1874 and became one of the many highly talented young men that the practice nurtured. His best known buildings have a rustic, crafted feel to them: of these, Home Place, a large butterfly plan house near Holt in Norfolk, is the most memorable. He also designed the Henry Martin Hall in Market Street in Cambridge. Although his addition to the Master’s Lodge is small, he otherwise worked on a larger scale for the College laying out some of its city land for development, and he designed a large and characteristically idiosyncratic structure, now the Zoology Building, in Downing Street, unfortunately subsequently marred by clumsy rooftop extensions. In 1912 he was appointed Slade Professor of Art, became the first head of the Department of Architecture, and was elected to a College Fellowship. 

John Westley (d. 1644) was a master builder who worked on and probably designed several important buildings in Cambridge including Clare College, rebuilt from 1638. 

William Wilkins senior (1751-1815) was the son of a Norwich plasterer and carried on his father’s trade after the latter’s death. He had however strong antiquarian interests, becoming a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London, and published on a wide number of scientific and historian subjects. Although most of his work as a builder took the form of alterations to existing buildings, he designed Donington Hall Leicestershire for the Earl of Moira from 1790 in a picturesque, naive gothic style and he built Newnham Cottage, his own house in Cambridge, in what is now part of the College garden around 1800 (see West Road). His work on the Master’s Lodge was designed shortly before his son William, who was to become an architect of national renown, entered the College as a scholar in 1796. 

For Theodore Haveus, see: Caius Court 

For Anthony Salvin, see: Gonville Court

For John Simpson, see: Gonville Court 

For Alfred Waterhouse, see: Tree Court 

For E.P. Warren, see: Gonville Court 

FURTHER READING 

Valinsky, David, The Architecture and Writings of E.S. Prior. London, Lund Humphries, 2026.