Memorial Court

Examples of Rooms in Memorial Court
M12 P13 P1 P16 R4 R9 S1 Gyp Rooms

The complex known as Memorial Court actually comprises three courts: Memorial Court, Ashby Court, and Thirkill Court.

Memorial Court, including the section later renamed Ashby Court, was built between 1922 and 1933, and designed by Sir Giles Gilbert Scott, who was also the architect for the main University Library, which stands behind the Court (those of you from the Liverpool area may also be interested to know that he designed Liverpool's Anglican Cathedral). Although discussions had begun before the First World War, the eventual building was conceived as a memorial to those who had lost their lives in the Great War. Thirkill Court was added to the south side of Memorial Court in 1953-55, financed by old members of the College and named after Henry Thirkill, Master from 1939 to 1958.

Clare's own Forbes Mellon Library, splitting the original Memorial Court into two (and hence creating Asby Court, named after Eric Ashby, Thirkill's successor as Master), was completed in 1986, also with money raised by an appeal to old members and friends of the College. A new Law reading room was opened in Ashby Court in 1999, named after one of Clare's Law Fellows, Professor Kurt Lipstein - who sadly died in December 2006.

As already mentioned, all the first-year students ("freshers") are housed in the Memorial Court complex. All are sent an Accommodation Form, asking the following questions:

- Do you particularly want a room with below average rent?
- Do you need a ground floor room for medical reasons?
- Do you want to play a piano in your room? (this would mean a ground floor room)

- Would you be willing to use a keyboard?
- Do you want to play any other instrument in your room?

- Will you be married when you come into residence? (please note that we are not able to accommodate     

   partners in Undergraduate accommodation)
- Would you particularly like a quiet room?
- Do you have any specific accommodation needs or requests?

- Would you like to be placed in a "shared en-suite"? (you would have your own private bedroom but share 

  bathroom facilities with one other person - same sex)

Guided by the replies received, the Rooms Tutor and Rooms Co-ordinator will then allocate rooms to all the freshers, doing their best to meet everyone's requests!

The en-suite rooms tend to be at the upper end of the price range, but all rooms are of a high standard and the majority contain at least a handbasin - there are one or two that do not have hand basins.

Students eat their main meals in the Hall and Buttery (in Old Court), but snacks and light meals can be prepared in the "gyp-rooms" adjacent to the bedrooms, one gyp-room serving four or five students.