1490 Trinity College Great Gate

The consensus seems to be that Great Gate, along with the other buildings comprising the North part of Great Court's East range, was started around 1490. William Swayne was the mason at that time.

But building progress was slow, and there apears to have been no work between 1505 and 1518. In 1522-23 the gates were paid for; these are the gates that are still hanging. Possibly there were no initial plans for a tower. At any rate, the upper floor was not started until 1528-29, and it was only then that a tower was first mentioned. The corner turrets were added at this time by a mason called John Sherref.

It is built of brick with the the exception of the East front and the quoins of the corner turrets. It is a lot broader and squatter than King Edward's Tower and, unlike its predecessor gatehouses in Cambridge, has a separate pedestrian entrance.

Between the first floor windows is an elaborate niche for an image. This now contains a statue of Henry VIII, carved in 1615 by William Cure the Younger, described by Pevsner as wretched. Pevsner has a similarly low opinion of the statues on the West face.

The statue of Henry VIII is wretched not only in the quality of its carving. It was the victim of a student prank, and now holds a chair leg in place of a sceptre.

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