Sidney Sussex College

, Founder of the College]] Before Sidney's founding as a Protestant seminary, the site was home to the Grey Friars, or Franciscans, for nearly three centuries. In the 1950s, excavations revealed remnants of the complex, a lay graveyard with reburied skeletons, shattered stained glass, and a large Saxon jar. The medieval cellars beneath Hall Court, where Sidney's wine is stored, are remnants of this era. The college was founded in 1596 under the terms of the will of Frances Sidney, Countess of Sussex (1531–1589), wife of Thomas Radclyffe, 3rd Earl of Sussex, and named after its foundress. It was from its inception an avowedly Protestant foundation; "some good and godlie moniment for the…

Sidney's buildings blend old and new, with the latest addition, the Old Kitchen (new dining space), completed in 2021. Student rooms have kitchen access, but also have catered options. Sidney sits on the site of Cambridge's Franciscan friary, built in the middle of the 13th century and dissolved in the 1530s. Artefacts of the site's past lie beneath the foundations of the college buildings. Sidney Sussex has two courtyards surrounded by Grade I listed buildings dating from 1596.