Known locally as Caius (pronounced 'keys'), Gonville and Caius boasts three fascinating gates: Virtue, Humility and Honour. They symbolise the progress of the good student; the third gate (the Porta Honoris, a fabulous domed and sundial-sided confection) leads to the Senate House and thus graduation. Former students include Francis Crick (of DNA-discoverers Crick and Watson) and Edward Wilson, of Scott’s tragic Antarctic expedition. The megastar of astrophysics, the late Stephen Hawking, was a fellow here for more than 50 years.
The college was actually founded twice, first by a priest called Gonville, in 1348, and then again in 1557 by Dr Caius (his given name was Keys – it was common for academics to use the Latin form of their names), a brilliant physician who supposedly spoiled his legacy by insisting in the statutes that the college admit no 'deaf, dumb, deformed, lame, chronic invalids, or Welshmen'.
