Corpus offers outstanding facilities and accommodation for postgraduate students.
Leckhampton House, a fine Victorian residence which provides a home for two Fellows and five research students, is connected to the dining hall.
Nearby is the George Thomson Building or GTB, completed in 1964 and refurbished in 2013. It was designed by Philip Dowson of Ove Arup and Partners and accommodates thirty-two graduate students in single rooms.
In 2012 the Kho Building was completed. It was designed by architects Bland Brown & Cole and the main contractor was Barnes Construction. It provides 6 self-contained flats for couples and 34 en-suite single study-bedrooms.
A number of large houses on the Leckhampton site at Cranmer Road and Selwyn Gardens provide more single rooms, as well as flats for research student couples and families.
A newly rebuilt house in Barton Road is easily reached through the Leckhampton gardens and now provides 14 single rooms, 4 of which are ensuite, and a small flat.
Accommodation costs at Leckhampton range from £92 – £131 per week for a single non-ensuite room and from £123 – £155 per week for a single ensuite room for the academic year 2015/16 (£94 – £134 and £126 – £159 for academic year 2016/17). In addition to rent a utilities charge of £11.91 per week (academic year 2015/16) is charged.
Details of this charge can be found here. Other accommodation related charges may apply dependent on student personal usage, i.e. personal electric consumption is charged on a metered basis at cost.
The College normally accommodates all of its graduate students coming from outside Cambridge for the duration of their University courses, up to a maximum of three years. Leckhampton remains open for residence throughout the year although no meals are available for a short time each summer due to the closure of the kitchens.
Dining and Amenities
Leckhampton has its own library and music room, with a Steinway grand piano, where the College musical society, the Bene’t Club, and others give concerts from time to time.Leckhampton House contains dining facilities providing two-course sit down evening meals on Tuesdays, a buffet meal on Thursdays and a bar providing bar meals on Monday – Friday evenings. It also has a television and reading room,which receives a selection of newspapers and periodicals, and videos are regularly shown on Sundays. Leckhampton House also provides Wireless Networking.
Small, shared kitchens are provided in all the residential buildings on the Leckhampton site. However, the College does not provide cooking utensils, saucepans, cutlery or crockery.
There is a launderette on the site comprising coin-operated washing and drying machines. Residents’ rooms, but not the flats, are cleaned regularly by the College staff.
These amenities, together with the beautiful gardens and playing fields which cover an area of almost thirty acres, make Leckhampton an extremely comfortable and pleasant home for graduate students.
Activities
Leckhampton has various well-established social and cultural activities. For example, the Stephen Hales and Leckhampton Societies provide regular opportunities for research students, Fellows and others to talk about some aspect of their work or interests.
A summer play is sometimes performed in the gardens by graduate students and Fellows and productions have included plays by Christopher Marlowe, George Bernard Shaw and John Dryden.
In addition to formal dinners held regularly at the central College site, special dinners are also held at Leckhampton. The Middle Common Room (MCR), to which all graduate students belong, organises its own dinners, often hosting graduates from another college in exchange for the experience of dining in other colleges.
Sunday teas are a further social tradition at which guests are welcome.
The presence of students from many British and overseas universities makes for a lively and stimulating community at Leckhampton. Social events are arranged by the MCR Committee and video nights, garden parties, barbecues and wine tastings are all features of the social life. The atmosphere and degree of social activity relies primarily on the graduates themselves, with the MCR Committee acting as organisers. The success of Leckhampton has come about in large measure through the enthusiasm and commitment of the residents themselves.
Library
The library at Leckhampton has been described as a ‘country house library’. That is, its primary role is recreational. The aim is that all the books in all the sections should be accessible to all the residents. It does, however, contain some reference books to answer those niggling questions that arise at two o’clock in the morning! All the sections now are arranged alphabetically by author with the exception of Biography (arranged by subject), Art (arranged by a mixture of author and artist), Reference (arranged randomly as it contains such an eclectic mix of books, maps etc that we haven’t worked out a way of organising it!). The library contains between four and five thousand books. One of the best things ever said about it by a former resident is that it contains those books you always meant to read but never quite got around to. It’s small enough to find them too. Suggestions for and donations of new books are always welcome.
The library contains the following sections: Art, Biography, Literary Criticism, Crime Fiction, Drama, Film, History, Humorous Books, Music, Novels, Philosophy, Poetry, Reference, (PS) Social (or Human) Sciences, Natural Science, Science Fiction, Theology, Travel.
Sport
Leckhampton is fortunate in being sited next to the College playing fields, which provide gym facilities, squash and tennis courts (four grass and two hard courts) and a cricket net. Leckhampton also boasts an outdoor swimming pool that is popular during the summer months, and one of the best croquet lawns in Cambridge. Despite being a relatively small College, Corpus Christi fields teams in all major sports for inter-college competitions and leagues. Graduate students participate in College sporting life at all levels and have formed the backbone of many successful College teams. In addition, graduates take part in less rigorous, but no less enjoyable, friendly matches, fielding male, female and mixed teams in some sports.The more popular sports include football, rowing, cricket, rugby, hockey, squash and tennis.