Plaque On The Back For Hughes

Hughes Hall are receiving a blue plaque this saturday to mark their 125th anniversary.

The plaque will be placed on the college’s original buildings in Merton Street – numbers one and three.

Hughes, Cambridge’s oldest graduate college, are also planning to host a street party in collaboration with Newnham to celebrate the plaque’s unveiling.

Hughes was originally set up as a graduate college specifically for Newnham, and was in fact founded in the Newnham area of the City.

Sarah Squire, President of Hughes Hall, explained that the plaque: “marks a bold and pioneering initiative to promote the education of women and girls in the 1880s.”

The college was first founded in 1885 as the Cambridge Training College for Women Teachers and had only 14 students. But it soon flourished and 10 years later it moved to its present site.

It may now be a full, mixed, postgrad Cambridge College but Hughes Hall won’t forget its pioneering roots.

“We are very pleased that the early part of the College’s history will be permanently commemorated in this public way in the place where it all began,” said Squire.

There are currently 17 blue plaques erected across Cambridge, for figures such as John Maynard Keynes and to mark significant events such as the discovery of DNA.

All Newnham residents and members of the Blue Plaque Association are welcome to join members of the college on Saturday for the speeches and celebrations, which start at midday.