The dinosaur of Jesus Lane
By Antonia Leslie
You walk up the empty "Chimneys"(a paved lane entrance), so called because of the hexagonal brick chimneys sitting above the arched entrance. Then you pass the masters' lodge, a tiny one bedroomed flat with patio, NOT at all but a very large house looking out on a seemingly endless lawn with a frame of dark trees. Keep going past the porter's lodge and onto first court where you will see the beginning of a permanent collection of sculptures.
Since the 1980's the college has been holding sculpture exhibitions every other year and has kept some, but I am sure that they asked. There on the middle of the lawn (that word again) is Barry Flanagan's plump and proud horse. Actually I feel there is also an unsung hero sculptor, the person who is manicuring the lopsided menhir topiary yew bushes that are covered with a hairnet of cobwebs, adding to the total uniform perfection. There are sculptures hidden in trees, or glinting in tiny hidden gardens. Some jump out of green felt, (well I could have said lawn again) and others soar skywards. In the library is the silent witness of Antony Gormley's standing bronze figure looking down on the railway sleepers with small lighthouse scenes giving that dizzying feeling of tiny to large in the same moment.
Leaving the college through the large gates onto Jesus Lane, you may notice the group of flatpack dinosaur sculptures (Jake and Dinos Chapman) in rusting bronze. Actually you can't miss them and do not miss the cloisters, the worn wood staircases leading to the student's lodgings and the chapel with the painted ceiling and marble tiled floor. You might be lucky and even hear organ practice.
Jesus Lane
Since the 1980's the college has been holding sculpture exhibitions every other year and has kept some, but I am sure that they asked. There on the middle of the lawn (that word again) is Barry Flanagan's plump and proud horse. Actually I feel there is also an unsung hero sculptor, the person who is manicuring the lopsided menhir topiary yew bushes that are covered with a hairnet of cobwebs, adding to the total uniform perfection. There are sculptures hidden in trees, or glinting in tiny hidden gardens. Some jump out of green felt, (well I could have said lawn again) and others soar skywards. In the library is the silent witness of Antony Gormley's standing bronze figure looking down on the railway sleepers with small lighthouse scenes giving that dizzying feeling of tiny to large in the same moment.
Leaving the college through the large gates onto Jesus Lane, you may notice the group of flatpack dinosaur sculptures (Jake and Dinos Chapman) in rusting bronze. Actually you can't miss them and do not miss the cloisters, the worn wood staircases leading to the student's lodgings and the chapel with the painted ceiling and marble tiled floor. You might be lucky and even hear organ practice.
Jesus Lane
