One of the two remaining all-women's undergraduate colleges in Cambridge, Newnham is one of the prettier buildings in the university despite being off the beaten tourist trail. Its famous alumnae include Sylvia Plath, Emma Thompson, Joan Bakewell, Diane Abbot, and Germaine Greer.
Built in 1871 in the Queen Anne style, the college is an ornate collection of Dutch Gables, red brickwork and pretty white woodwork, built around one vast corridor (allegedly the second-longest in Europe; I believe the first is somewhere in Belgium). This makes navigating the college a bit of a challenge for students who live in its furthest reaches; the entire trip can take as long as 20 minutes. The college also has beautiful gardens, with a sunken garden and immaculate lawns.
As a place to study, Newnham offers students the opportunity to live directly opposite the arts faculty, giving a little credence to the popular assertion that arts students are lazy (here, it's quite possible to be you're 1 minute away from the lecture theatre!). Many of its all-female denizens also find it beneficial that their living quarters are separate from the men in their lives though (as nocturnal fire drills prove) the college is rarely completely free of them.
For many students the all-female element is a mixed blessing: as someone who prefers a mixed environment I found the elusively female element a bit stifling at times, and this meant I socialised a lot out of college. read more