List of fictional Cambridge colleges

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Fictional colleges are perennially popular in modern novels, allowing the author much greater licence when describing the more intimate activities of a Cambridge college. Such institutions are often home to eccentrics or miscreants, murderers or snobs, and though wistfully romantic in their cloistered courts, host fictional events that could prove libellous were identifiable institutions used.

Below is a list of some of the fictional colleges of the University of Cambridge.

Bishop Weblog's College - Featured in NST IA Biology of Cells 2007 and 2008 Practical Examination Papers, and is usually the subject of some microorganism based connundrum that students must solve.
Coli College - Featured in an NST IA Biology of Cells Practical Class during Lent term 2008, which was apparantly suffering from an outbreak of food poisoning caused by a virulent strain of a mysterious bacteria.
Fisher College - The Cambridge Murders by Dilwyn Rees, situated between real-life St John's College and Trinity College.
Heath College - A spoof college mentioned in a Cambridge undergraduate magazine. It was to be founded by a benefactor called Mr Heath. The article eventually suggested there were rumours that it would be merged with Robinson College ( which hadn't started admitting students) to form Heath-Robinson College
Lady Jane's College - mentioned in a short story by Cordwainer Smith, founded as part of the Rediscovery of Man.
Lancaster College - various books by Simon Raven. Bears more than a passing resemblance to King's College.
Lauds College - various books by Susan Howatch. Fictionally contains Cambridge Cathedral, so is similar to Christ Church, Oxford. Charles Ashworth was a fellow of the College and many other characters studied there. Named after William Laud, controversial seventeenth century Archbishop of Canterbury
Pelby College - spoof college that Cambridge students use as an "unmistakable landmark" when giving directions to tourists. By convention it is located somewhere between Magdalene and St John's.^[1]
Porterhouse College - Porterhouse Blue by Tom Sharpe. The name suggests Peterhouse, though it is also a pun on college porters and porterhouse steaks. It is also reputedly based loosely on Pembroke, Sharpe's alma mater.
St Agatha's College - The Wyndham Case (1993) & A Piece of Justice (1995) by Jill Paton Walsh, located between Castle Mound and Chesterton Lane.
St Alupent's College - in the novels of Mary Selby/Joanna Bell. The author studied at Gonville and Caius College.
St Angelicus College - The Gate of Angels by Penelope Fitzgerald (1990). Situated not far from Christ's Pieces.
St Bartholemew's College - Nights in White Satin (1999) by Michelle Spring. Located near the police station and New Square, with murders investigated by Laura Principal of Newnham College.
St Bernard's College - Darkness at Pemberley by T. H. White. Loosely disguised version of Queens' College.^[2]
St Botolph's College - Example college in Cambridge University Computing Service documentation.
St Cake's College - In Gardie's - The Opera, name given to a fictional corollary to Gonville and Caius College, which lost a large public-relations battle in its efforts to close a popular late-night student eatery. The struggle to save the Gardenia, or "Gardies," was adapted to a comedic opera and performed at Queens' College in 2005.
St Cedd's College - Various works by Douglas Adams. Based on St. John's College, the alma mater of Douglas Adams.
St. Dunstan's College, Cambridge - College of Professor Austin Herring, who appears in Chris Addison's The Ape That Got Lucky and Civilisation
St Ignatius' College - the university that Albert Campion went to, according to the novels of Margery Allingham.
St. Martha's College - Matricide at St. Martha's by Ruth Dudley Edwards.
St. Mary's College - The Hills of Varna by Geoffrey Trease.
St Matthew's College - Various works by Stephen Fry. Loosely disguised version of Queens' College, revealed by names of bridges and courts.
St Radegund's College - an all-female college in Hearts and Mind by Rosy Thornton.
St Stephen's College - For the Sake of Elena by Elizabeth George, located between Trinity College and Trinity Hall (a physical impossibility in the real world, as the two colleges are separated only by an alleyway which is about five to ten feet wide) and modelled on the latter.
Tudor College - the home of the main characters in The Night Climbers by Ivo Stourton.
Weirdsister College - Magical college, setting of a sequel to The Worst Witch.
Wetmarsh College - subject of an operetta by Mark Wainwright and Roland Anderson entitled Wetmarsh College, or, Dr Middlebottom, first staged at the ADC Theatre, Cambridge, in 2005 (Wetmarsh is never explicitly said to be in Cambridge, but Wainwright's libretto [albeit including a little Oxford terminology] and the place of its composition and first performance make it fairly clear).
an unnamed college in C. P. Snow's novel The Masters and other novels in the Strangers and Brothers series. Snow disparaged what he called the 'Christminster' convention of the naming of fictitious colleges.
An unnamed college in the BBC Radio 4 comedy series High Table, Lower Orders.