Document of the Term: Gostlin House

Thursday 7 April 2016

In 1933, the College purchased 68 and 70 Trumpington Street. This enabled the College to build a small villa-like structure on a parcel of ground inset into the premises of the Bull Hotel. It housed 3 undergraduates and stood until the 1966 redevelopment of Chapel Court.

Gostlin House in 1936, reference: COLL/1/19/10

The villa would have stood on part of the ground now occupied by the Library Office and the entrance to what is today known as Gostlin. It can just be seen at the right hand side of the Chapel in this image of Main Court below.

Reference: PHOT3/24/2

Did you live in the old Gostlin House? The Archivist would be pleased to hear from you with any memories you have of the house. Although several pictures of the exterior survive, no records of the interior remain. The doorway can just be seen in the photograph below from 1959. On the reverse of the photograph, Stanley Aston, College Bursar, notes that the wall in the foreground originally ran from the north-west corner of the Chapel but was moved flush with the south-east corner when Hobson's was built in 1932. It was then pulled down again a few months later and set back 18 inches to break the flat line.