Downing College

Upon the death of Sir George Downing, 3rd Baronet in 1749, the wealth left by his grandfather, Sir George Downing, 1st Baronet, who built 10 Downing Street, was applied by his will. Under this will, the family fortune was left to his cousin, Sir Jacob Downing, 4th Baronet, 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.

Fantastic venue for an event or conference. Plenty of accommodations (though not luxurious) with a phenomenal atmosphere for a large function that encourages you to open your mind to new ideas. Catering was fantastic as well.

If you are looking for a convenient and beautiful 'new' college to visit in Cambridge, then Downing is a great choice. It has amazing courtyards surrounded with pastel yellow buildings. There is a cafe within and Heong Gallery always has nice exhibits displayed.

I would say the college does very poorly when it comes to student welfare and with carrying out rules. It sometimes seems like they just want to earn money and do not care about anything else. The college used to have very affordable student housing next to Parker's Piece and on Devonshire Road, but sold it to other colleges at the end of 2015 to get money to Build the shiny new Battcock Lodge (a high rent accommodation that's also used for conferences). According to a survey done on all 31 colleges, Downing has been revealed to be *the* most expensive college (original article from thetab on 2016/03/10). Furthermore, the staff are often slow in responding, do not treat students fairly and the college does not give compensation for their mistakes. While some of the higher-level positions staff (e.g., some of the fellows, chaplin) are understanding and logical, many of the staff you deal with more daily (e.g., accommodation officer, bursar, some college tutors) often do not care about logic, they make decisions based on their feelings, or may just completely ignore emails. For example, accommodation ballots are held every year in March, and the accommodation officer miscalculated a student's points, but she refused to acknowledge it and recalculate until it was brought to the senior tutor after weeks of struggling communication. The college also allows disabled students (here I'm talking about things like ASD/anxiety/depression not physical disability) to pick their accommodation first, which makes it very unfair to the rest of the students, because (1) the diagnosis cutoffs for these disorders are so vague in the first place, and (2) these diagnoses are inaccessible to many international students who come from countries that do not have such awareness. Additionally, even if student A reports to have the same diagnosis as student B, the college may not treat them the same. The accommodation officer also applies rules unfairly to different students, for example both student C and student D are in their final years, but she allowed student C to apply for next year's housing and told student D she can't apply because she's in the final year. The MCR functions very variably, depending on who is on the committee, sometimes they do provide good services, but sometimes the MCR could just be a clique of people in their own circles who gain extra funding / benefits from the college (though I guess this can be said about other colleges too). The college is centrally located, making it situated close to two police stations, one fire station, and ambulances pass en route to Addenbrookes hospital. This makes the college environment constantly filled with high-pitched sirens (sometimes 30+ sirens a day, especially on Fridays and Saturdays). Furthermore, the Catholic Church (OLEM) is right across the college, and their bells ring from 7am-12am(midnight) at 15 minute intervals. False fire alarms go off pretty much every week at Battcock Lodge. And the college carries out construction work over the summer, which is also a big headache (they do not care about students who are living in the buildings affected by construction). The college dinning halls are open only on certain days of the week during out-of-term time, but students still have to pay for it (p.s., the college says that they make their fees transparent and there are no additional catering facilities charges, but that's not the complete story: the kitchen fee were added to the rent, so you still pay for it: see Downing MCR open meeting minutes 2016-03-17). If you are rich and can afford an college-facing room away from the streets, or if you are just visiting, then Downing is a good choice. It has good food, is centrally located, and has recently bought a £700,000 rowing tank (instead of on practical stuff like buying more houses). If you scratch your name on Downing's windows and are lucky, you may be praised by the college 100 years later! (see facebook downingcollegearchives 8 Jan 2019).

Heong Gallery is a great space. Admire the trees in the grounds or the chapel with beautiful woodwork.