HISTORY

The last ball to be held at Downing was our Bicentenary Ball in 2000. Yes, that means it was our 200th birthday, and if you're really clever you might have deduced that the college was founded in 1800. This was also the year that the world discovered electric batteries, and so we were born into an era of innovation, an era indirectly responsible for the Walkman.

Downing was founded by Sir George Downing, third baronet, with wealth left by his grandfather, the first baronet, who served both Cromwell and Charles II and built No. 10 Downing Street, which has been for 250 years the London home of the Prime Minister.

Baronets are generally of a bad sort, and Sir George was no exception. When he died, having no hope of a legitimate heir, he left the estates to the next heir to the baronetcy, his cousin Jacob, and if he died without heir, to three cousins in succession. If they all died without issue, the estates were to be used to found a college at Cambridge called Downing. We can therefore conclude that Sir George was a very bad baronet indeed and had not really intended to found a college at all.

Sir George's grandfather had also been a very wicked man, so wicked, indeed, that he became 'excessive rich' (sic). Pepys, who knew all about that sort of thing, said outright that he was 'a most perfidious rogue'. So it is not surprising that Sir George was a poor type lacking the right ideas on education. The University authorities, however, did not mind this when the money came to them on the death of his relatives without heir. He was dead too, and as they pointed out, pecunia ipsa non olet.

The Founder died in 1749 and Sir Jacob in 1764. As the other named heirs had also died, the college should have come into existence then but Sir Jacob's widow, being a typical woman, refused to give up the estates. The University proceeded with all haste to the Court of Chancery and won their suit in only five years, and in 1800 the court decided in favour of Sir George's will and George III granted Downing a Royal Charter. By the time this happened, the fortune which should have been used to found and maintain the college had been gravely eroded and the estates were so neglected and unprofitable that Downing began life poverty-stricken and with poor prospects. And so Downing College is the working-class hero, if you will, of Cambridge University.

The development of the College buildings has therefore been slow and spasmodic - another 50 years passed before the college was in working order. In fact, it's still not finished. But the dons were very clever and by 1944 had marked the spot with a cross where the chapel was to be by burying one of the Masters there.

To make the most of all this money, the Downing authorities decided to have a college bigger and more magnificent than any other, and they would put it where everybody could see it. But although, when objections were raised to Parker's Piece and Castle Hill, they chose a site that was undoubtedly exposed to view at the time, so many shops and houses have since been built round about that nobody can see the college at all. In no other way, however, can Downing be said to be an obscure college.

Oddly enough, Downing is really very old. The first buildings were erected in 1807-1812 by William Wilkins who had travelled in the Middle East and was greatly influenced by the buildings he had seen in Greece. Being designed in the classical Grecian style, it can be compared only with the Fitzwilliam museum. Being hidden, too, it escapes the ravages of the Gothic invasion. Wilkins' plan could not be completed for lack of money, which is why Downing cannot be said to have a quadrangle, being that what suffices as one consists of only three sides.

We have however decided that the college is more than ready for another ball, and plan to make sure Bohème lives up to the standards set by our illustrious predecessors. We hope to reach dizzy heights of success with Bohème - in fact, we shall consider ourselves as having failed if we don't.