Trevelyan College

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Trevelyan College, commonly known as Trevs, is a college of the University of Durham in England. It was founded in 1966 and takes its name from the historian George Macaulay Trevelyan, Chancellor of the University from 1950 to 1957.

Trevs' internal construction is very unusual. Essentially, it is a string of hexagons, which means that many of the rooms contain strange angles. In a typical room, the angles in any pair of opposite corners add up to 180°, making it a cyclic quadrilateral. The story goes that the architect believed that women — for whom the college was originally designed, becoming fully mixed only in 1992 — would be intimidated by a building full of right angles and corners.

The building, built in the 1960s, has won a Civic Design Award. More modern additions include the K-block with en-suite rooms and the Sir James Knott Hall. Approximately 320 students can be housed in the building, and around 500 are members of the college, making Trevs one of the smaller of Durham's colleges. Its shield bears the upper half of a horse swimming in water, which presumably explains the joshing title of the college magazine, Hippocampus.

Notable alumni

Its most famous alumnus is arguably Mo Mowlam (former cabinet minister) who, in a characteristically rebellious act even at that tender age, is reputed to have painted her room black. Other alumni include the puzzle writer David J. Bodycombe.

External links

• Trevelyan College official website
• Trevelyan College JCR undergraduate student organisation