The college owns properties in the centre of Cambridge, on Bateman Street and Thompson's Lane, and on its Wychfield site next to Fitzwilliam College, where most of the college's sporting activity takes place. BBC journalist Mary Hockaday became Master in 2022.[6]
The devastation caused by the Black Death in England of the 1340s included the loss of perhaps half of the population; Bishop Bateman himself lost nearly 700 of his parish priests, and so his decision to found a college was probably centred on a need to rebuild the priesthood. The site that Bateman chose was the original site of Gonville Hall, which had been founded three years earlier, but was financially struggling. Bateman's clerical aim for the Hall is reflected in the foundation of 1350, when he stated that the college's aim was "the promotion of divine worship and of canon and civil science and direction of the commonwealth and especially of our church and diocese of Norwich." This led the college to be particularly strong in legal studies, a tradition that has continued over the centuries.[7]
At first all colleges in Cambridge were known as "Halls" or "Houses" and then later changed their names from "Hall" to "College". However, when Henry VIII founded Trinity College next door, it became clear that Trinity Hall would continue being known as a Hall. The new foundation's name may have been a punishment for the college's master, Stephen Gardiner, who had opposed the king's remarriage and had endured much of the college's land being removed. It is incorrect to call it Trinity Hall College, although Trinity Hall college (lower case) is, strictly speaking, accurate. A similar situation had existed once before when Henry VI founded King's College (in 1441) despite the existence of King's Hall (founded in 1317). King's Hall was later incorporated in the foundation of Trinity College in 1546.
Trinity Hall, in addition to having a chapel, also had joint usage of the Church of St John Zacharias with Clare Hall, until the church was demolished to enable the construction of King's College in the 15th century. After this, the college was granted usage of the nearby Church of St Edward, King and Martyr on Peas Hill, a connection which remains to this day.
21st century
2015–2020 allegations of sexual misconduct
In 2015, after student complaints of verbal sexual harassment by college fellow Peter Hutchinson, he was asked to withdraw permanently from teaching and from social events at which students might be present.[8] In 2017, he was apparently accidentally invited to a further event with students present, resulting in an independent review[8] which allowed him to remain an Emeritus Fellow with a new agreement as to what events he could attend. After further protest from students and alumni, Hutchinson resigned.[9][10][11]
In 2020, Tortoise Media alleged that Acting Senior Tutor William O’Reilly had seriously mishandled a disciplinary process of a student who was the subject of multiple allegations of sexual assault, including giving witness testimony on behalf of the student, with whom he had a "close relationship". The website also reported that O'Reilly had been the subject of a sexual assault allegation himself, and that college masterJeremy Morris had nevertheless allowed him to teach and to oversee the student disciplinary process.[12] Morris and O’Reilly agreed to step back from their roles pending investigation, and the college governing body authorised an independent enquiry by Gemma White QC.[13][14] The inquiry recommended Trinity Hall consider disciplinary action against Morris, who subsequently resigned in 2021.[15] In 2022 the college published White's report alongside a response document indicating actions it had taken to improve college structures and culture.[16]
2026 private school recruitment controversy
In 2026, The Guardian reported that the college intended to target 50 private schools, predominantly in the south-east of England and charging upwards of £25,000 per year, for student recruitment, in order to improve the "quality" of applicants and prevent "unintentional discrimination" against privately educated applicants.[17] The Sutton Trust, an educational charity aimed at improving social mobility, described the policy as "shocking", while Lee Elliot Major, a professor of social mobility at the University of Exeter, said that it implied "widening participation students are academically inferior",[18][19] College master Mary Hockaday apologised for the language in the memo but said that the College "has not changed its admissions policy nor its commitment to widening participation".[20]
Buildings
Official permission to start acquiring land and houses was granted by King Edward III in February 1350. It is probable they were already in possession of a house, because the first piece of property wasn’t purchased until November 1350 when Bishop Bateman paid £300 to the Prior and Convent of Ely for land and a house that formerly housed the Monks of Ely studying in Cambridge. Four years later a house and land was purchased from John Drax that made up the northeast corner of Front Court. The college continued to acquire small parcels of land, and the present size of Central Site was reached by 1544, save for one small piece of land to the north-western extremity acquired in 1769.[21]
Building was in progress during February 1352, when royal protection was given to 'Richard de Bury and other carpenters' to carry timber to the site; and both the east side of the court and the hall on the west were finished before 1374, when a contract was signed for internal carpenter's work on the remainder of the western and, probably, on the northern side[22] Once it was finished, the quadrangle was larger than any of its predecessors.[23] The medieval structures remain unaltered, but were modernised and refaced in Portland and Ketton stone in the 18th century.
Entrance from Trinity Lane
Front Court
Chapel
The Chapel was licensed in 1352 and was built by August 1366, when Blessed Pope Urban V granted the college permission to celebrate Holy Mass there. Its present decor stems from its 1729–30 renovation; Lloyd had pre-existing graves removed to the Ante-Chapel, and the walls decorated with wainscotting and the ceiling with past Masters' crests. The Chapel was extended east in 1864, during which the original piscina was discovered and hidden behind a secret door. The painting behind the communion table is Maso da San Friano's Salutation, loaned from the Fitzwilliam Museum in 1957, replacing an earlier painting by Giacomo Stella.
The chapel in 2016.
Dining Hall
The Dining Hall was rebuilt under Lloyd along similar lines to the Chapel, with rendered walls replaced by wainscotting and medieval beams by baroque carvings. A large portrait of Lloyd dominates the wall behind high table; Lloyd supposedly made it irremovable from its wainscot surroundings, so that his representation can never be erased from the college.
The dining hall in 2019.
Libraries
The college library was built in the late 16th century, with the permission of Elizabeth I and probably during the mastership of Thomas Preston, and is now principally used for the storage of the college's manuscripts and rare books; it is one of the few remaining chained libraries left in the country. The new Jerwood Library overlooking the river was opened by Lord Howe of Aberavon in 1999, and stores the college's modern book collection.
Trinity Hall has active Junior, Middle and Senior Combination Rooms for undergraduate, postgraduate and senior members of the college community respectively. The Middle Combination Room is located in Front Court, while the Junior Combination Room is adjacent to the college bar in North Court. Both the MCR and JCR have highly active committees and organize popular socials for their members across the term.
Trinity Hall's boat club was founded in 1827, and has had a long and distinguished history; notably from 1890 until 1898, when the college stayed Head of the Mays for 33 consecutive days of rowing, which remains to this day the longest continuous defence by a single club of the bumps headship. The college won all but one of the events in the 1887 Henley Royal Regatta, making it the most successful Cambridge college in Henley's history.[citation needed] The current boathouse, built in 1905 in memory of Henry Latham, is on the River Cam, a short walk from the college.
Trinity Hall's literary society, the Hesperides, was founded in 1923 by Neil McLeod Innes with the intention of discussing literary and artistic subjects. Named after the seminal work of the 17th-century poet Robert Herrick, in its early years the society hosted T. S. Eliot, J. B. Priestley and Nikolaus Pevsner at its various dinners and functions. Old Hesperideans have gone on to some notoriety, none more so than Donald Maclean, a spy and member of the Cambridge Five. The Hesperides disbanded in 1976, but was re-founded in 2020 to encourage literary activity after the COVID-19 pandemic; speakers have included Trinity Hall alumni Nicholas Hytner and Sophie Winkleman.
Gallery
A panoramic view of Latham Lawn and the adjacent buildings
↑Arms of Trinity Hall, Cambridge, being the arms of Bateman, as used by William Bateman (d. 1355), Bishop of Norwich 1344–55, founder of Trinity Hall: as seen (with bordure engrailed) at Trinity Hall, Cambridge (over B staircase), impaled by the arms of the See of Norwich.
↑Willis, R. & Clark, J. W. (1886) The Architectural History of the University of Cambridge, and of the colleges of Cambridge and Eton. Cambridge: University Press. vol 1. pp.210-214
↑'The colleges and halls: Trinity Hall', in A History of the County of Cambridge and the Isle of Ely: Volume 3, the City and University of Cambridge, ed. J P C Roach (London, 1959), British History Online https://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/cambs/vol3/pp362-371 [accessed 6 February 2026].
↑Malden, H. E. (1902) Trinity Hall, or, the College of scholars of the Holy Trinity of Norwich in the University of Cambridge / by Henry Elliot Malden. London: F. E. Robinson. p.32
The Hidden Hall: Portrait of a Cambridge College, Peter Pagnamenta, ISBN1-903942-31-4
Trinity Hall: The History of a Cambridge College, 1350-1975, Charles Crawley, ISBN0-9505122-0-6
Warren's Book (Ed. 1911 by A.W.W.Dale)
Trinity Hall or, The college of scholars of the Holy Trinity of Norwich, in the University of Cambridge, Henry Elliot Malden. (1902). London: F.E. Robinson.
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