Information about Clare Hall, Cambridge

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Colleges of the University of Cambridge Clare Hall
Clare Hall heraldic shield
College name	Clare Hall
Named after	Clare College
Established	1966
Location	Herschel Road
Admittance	Men and women
President	Prof. Ekhard Salje FRS
Undergraduates	None
Graduates	145
Sister college	St Cross College, Oxford
Official website
Boat Club website

Clare Hall is a College for Advanced Study (admitting only Graduate Students) in the University of Cambridge.

Informality is a defining value at Clare Hall and this contributes to its unique character. Unlike other colleges in the university, Clare Hall does not have a high table at meals or a senior common room, and it is a single society for all social functions and in the use of the various college common rooms and other facilities. This encourages interaction between graduate students, distinguished visiting fellows and other senior members, aided also by the wide variety of national backgrounds and research interests of the members.

The interaction between members of Clare Hall is encouraged also by college seminars, lunchtime discussions and formal lecture series. The latter includes the annual series of lectures relating to human values, given by a distinguished international scholar and sponsored by the Tanner Foundation. They also include the annual Ashby lecture, given by a visiting fellow, and the more frequent ASH seminar (arts, social sciences and history) that were initiated by some of the visiting life members. Other events include art exhibitions, films and small concerts which supplement the wealth of music available in the university. The college retains strong links with scholars, universities and political and industry leaders in Asia, the Pacific, Africa, Europe and America. This provides a culturally rich and professionally diverse environment for academic research. Distinguished academics from universities all over the world intending to visit Cambridge during a period of study leave may apply to the college, and the Fellowship Committee recommends successful candidates for election for up to one year.

Other facilities in the college grounds include a sports complex with a multi-gym and swimming pool and an adjacent tennis court. It also boasts the finest dining room, food & wine and Formal Hall as rated by Varsity, a Cambridge University student run magazine. The university athletics track is a short run from the main college buildings.

It is one of the smallest colleges with 145 graduate students but around 125 Fellows, making it the highest Fellow to Student ratios at Cambridge University.

Foundation and history

The founding of Clare Hall was an act of remarkable generosity and foresight by the Master and Fellows of Clare College. Inspired by the concept of a centre for advanced study, their vision was to create a social group of men and women with their families, that would include graduate students studying for a higher degree in the university, research fellows working at post-doctoral level, permanent fellows holding faculty or research posts in the university, and visiting fellows who are on leave from their faculty positions in universities around the world.

After deciding to establish this new centre for advanced study in January 1964, the initial planning was carried through by a small group of fellows of Clare College, chaired by the Master, Sir Eric Ashby (later to become Lord Ashby of Brandon). It was soon agreed that the new centre would be called Clare Hall, the ancient name by which the college itself had been known for more than five hundred years until its modern title was adopted in the mid 19th century.

New buildings

The distinguished architect Ralph Erskine was appointed to design the buildings for Clare Hall, which were to include common rooms, offices and dining facilities, a house for the President and twenty apartments for visiting fellows. A neighbouring house, Elmside in Grange Road, provided rooms for the relatively small number of graduate students.

Sir Eric Ashby, Master of Clare College and Vice-Chancellor of the University, formally opened the new buildings of Clare Hall in September 1969. The Pippard family had already moved into the President’s house, twelve research students were living on the college site in Elmside and a number of visiting fellows with their families were living in the newly built college apartments. Amongst the early visiting fellows was Ivar Giaever, who was awarded a Nobel Prize for Physics in 1973. Joseph Brodsky, a visiting fellow and poet in residence at Clare Hall in 1977, was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1987.

Presidents

The President’s term of office is fixed at seven years and in 1973 Robert Honeycombe (later Sir Robert), Goldsmiths Professor and Head of the Department of Metallurgy, succeeded Brian Pippard as President of Clare Hall. Subsequent Presidents were: Sir Michael Stoker (1980-87), Foreign Secretary of the Royal Society and a former fellow and medical tutor at Clare College, who had taken early retirement from his post as Director of the Imperial Cancer Research Laboratories; Anthony Low (1987-94), Professor of Commonwealth History and formerly Vice-Chancellor of the Australian National University, who had been a visiting fellow of Clare Hall in 1971; Professor Dame Gillian Beer (1994-2001), King Edward VII Professor of English Literature. Professor Ekhard Salje FRS, Head of the Department of Earth Sciences, became President of Clare Hall in 2001 after holding professorships in Germany and France.

The late Lord Ashby was elected as the first honorary fellow of Clare Hall in 1975, on his retirement from the Mastership of Clare College. Present honorary fellows include two former visiting fellows: Kim Dae-Jung, President of the Republic of Korea; and Lee Bollinger, who later became President of the Universities of Michigan and Columbia. They also include the retired Presidents of the College, together with Ralph Erskine, architect of the early buildings, and Richard Eden, one of the founding fellows.

Growth and development

In 1978, a second neighbouring house, now called Leslie Barnett house, was obtained for graduate student accommodation. This purchase also allowed the Michael Stoker and Brian Pippard Buildings to be built in the college grounds, providing further student rooms. The Anthony Low Building in the garden of Elmside was completed in 2000 and provides further common rooms and the Garden Bar for the graduates on the main college site.

In the summer of 1996 the college purchased a substantial property, formerly the Cambridge family home of Victor Rothschild, 3rd Baron Rothschild, which is about five minutes' walk from the college at the end of Herschel Road. It was renamed Clare Hall West Court and, after conversion and some major building works, now provides public rooms, studies, apartments, study bedrooms, a fitness centre, swimming pool, and a tennis court.

See also

• Clare Hall Boat Club

External links

• Clare Hall website
• Clare Hall wins best food & wine and Formal Hall

•  • [ e] University of Cambridge

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References

Clare Hall. (2007). "Clare Hall - The College." Retrieved 24 January, 2007, from [1]