Murray Edwards College, Cambridge Dame Rosemary Murray and the donors. New Hall was founded in 1954, housing sixteen students in Silver Street where Darwin College now stands. This was at a time when Cambridge had the lowest proportion of women undergraduates of any university in the United Kingdom, and when only two other colleges (Girton and Newnham) admitted female students. In 1962, members of the Darwin family gave their home, "The Orchard", to the College. This new site was located on Huntingdon Road, about a mile from the centre of Cambridge. The architects chosen were Chamberlin, Powell and Bon, who are known for their
Long College for Women a subsequent donation of $750,000 from his estate – it was decided to open a coordinate institution. Long College was formally established on June 2, 1947. It was originally intended to last only ten years, but Hanover renewed the agreement in 1957 and extended the life of Long College. The addition of Long College to Hanover College added more than $1 million to the joint college's annual budget. New buildings, including dining halls and dormitories, were constructed to assist the incoming women in particular. As with other coordinate women's institutions of the time, such as Pembroke College of Brown University