Pembroke College Cambridge is the third-oldest college at the University of Cambridge, founded in 1347 by Marie de St Pol, Countess of Pembroke. It remains on its original site and houses over 700 students with buildings spanning centuries.
 
The college began as the Hall of Valence Mary, licensed by Edward III on Christmas Eve 1347, with statutes favoring French students and strict rules against drinking and debauchery. It was renamed Pembroke Hall and became Pembroke College in 1856; notable legacies include estates from alumni like Sir Robert Hitcham and a £34 million bequest from Ray Dolby in 2015
 
Pembroke features the oldest gatehouse in Cambridge and the first chapel by Sir Christopher Wren, consecrated in 1665 after extension by George Gilbert Scott. Expansions include Alfred Waterhouse’s Victorian Gothic library and hall, recent Mill Lane developments matching local Bath stone, and gardens with ancient plane trees and a historic bowling green. All this is architecture gold!
 
Also acting gold on the alumni front. Alumni include poet Edmund Spenser, Prime Minister William Pitt the Younger, comedian Eric Idle of Monty Python, actors Tom Hiddleston and Naomie Harris, and satirist Peter Cook. The college ranks highly academically and hosts the Pembroke Players dramatic society.
 
Interesting facts...
 
A nun-like figure and unexplained lights or showers activating on their own have been whispered about in student accounts. The Pembroke Debating Society once held a 1911 meeting to debate these “apparitions seen in the College courts,” cementing the tales in official records. No formal exorcisms are documented, unlike neighboring colleges, adding to the intrigue.