Blog
15 September 2026
The college’s photograph archive contains a marvellous collection of plate glass negatives, created by Alfred Rose between c.1890 and 1914. Rose was a member of Emmanuel for 60 years, being admitted in 1859, becoming a Fellow in 1863, and dying in college in 1919. He also served as Bursar for some years, relinquishing the office in 1893. His photographs show parts of Emmanuel that rarely, if ever, featured in the postcards sold by the thousands in local shops, and are therefore a unique record of the college’s appearance in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
These two photographs show the lofty, red-brick Hostel. It was built in 1888 under the aegis of the Master, George Phear, to provide less-wealthy students with decent, if unluxurious, accommodation. The experiment was so successful that wings were added to both sides of the building in 1894. The new sections feature some very attractive ornate brickwork. The earlier photo was taken soon after the construction of the Hostel. It also shows Old Emmanuel House, a rambling and ramshackle old building that at some point had been given an incongruous and unconvincing Georgian façade. The later photo was taken after the Hostel’s wings had been added, an undertaking that had necessitated the demolition of Old Emmanuel House.
Amanda Goode, College Archivist