A former Benedictine hostel, riverside Magdalene – properly pronounced "Maud-lyn" – is home to the famous Pepys Library, housing 3000 books bequeathed by the mid-17th-century diarist to his old college. This idiosyncratic library covers everything from illuminated medieval manuscripts to the Anthony Roll, a 1540s depiction of the Royal Navy's ships. Contact the college for current hours and entry fees.
Magdalene was the last college to let women study there; when they were finally admitted in 1988, some male students wore black armbands and flew the college flag at half mast, in a last flutter of patriarchy, before submitting to the march of progress.
