Explore Winchester College
Join one of our guided tours to learn more about the College’s history, architecture, collections, and tranquil gardens.
Our range of tours include College tours, Archives tours, Treasures tours, War Cloister tours and Garden tours. All tours start at the Porters’ Lodge on College Street, SO23 9NA.
Due to high demand, we strongly recommend booking your tickets in advance. For bookings of 10 or more, please contact us.
Treasures tours
New for 2025, Treasures tours explore the treasures of Winchester College’s collections, including highlights from our museum, art collections, and rare books which are not normally on public display.
Led by the Museum and Collections Manager, visitors will explore the picture gallery in ‘Musa’, the College’s original museum, where oil paintings, watercolours, and tapestries are on show. We also visit part of the Fellows’ Library, where there is a changing display of rare books and manuscripts, prints, and drawings. The tour also explores the school’s architectural heritage, including buildings in the Perpendicular, Baroque, and Gothic Revival styles.
Treasures tours last for 1 – 1.5 hours and start at the Porters’ Lodge.
Archives tours
The Winchester College Archives record the history of the school, its estates, buildings and pupils from its foundation. Uniquely, the Archives are housed in the same rooms built for their storage in the 1390s, and due to the quality of that provision, remain remarkably well preserved.
New for 2025, this tour allows a rare opportunity to view two medieval rooms which house the school’s Archives, as well as documents and artefacts relating to the school’s history which will be on display. The tour will be delivered by our College Archivist, Suzanne.
Archives tours last for 1 – 1.5 hours and start at the Porters’ Lodge.
College Tours
Tours of the College’s original 14th-century campus run daily, focusing on the school’s history and medieval architecture. Highlights include:
Chamber Court (the medieval heart of the College), Chapel (the 14th-century Gothic chapel), College Hall (where the Scholars still eat their meals), Cloisters and the 17th-century redbrick schoolroom.
College tours last for one hour and start at Porters' Lodge.
TOUR TIMES: Monday - Sunday, 14.15 and 15.30
For College tours running BEFORE 1st March, BOOK HERE.
For tours running from 1st March onwards, BOOK HERE.
War Cloister Tours
Commemorating 100 years since the opening of the College’s tranquil private war memorial, these thought-provoking tours bring to life the stories of the pupils and teachers from Winchester who died in both World Wars and subsequent conflicts, as well as the architecture, symbolism, and impact of War Cloister today. It has been described by Historic England as the largest private war memorial in Europe.
War Cloister tours last for one hour and start at the Porters’ Lodge.
TOUR TIMES BEFORE 1ST MARCH: Tuesdays and Saturdays, 14.00 and 15.30 - BOOK HERE
TOUR TIMES AFTER 1ST DECEMBER 2024: FIRST SATURDAY OF EVERY MONTH - BOOK HERE
Garden Tours
Led by members of the Winchester College gardening team, these tours explore the vast biodiversity and horticultural history of the beautiful hidden gardens of Winchester College. This includes a look at a traditional college ‘quad’, a quiet sitting garden for the old College sick house, the tranquil gardens of the College’s war memorial, and the ‘Warden's Garden’ with its herbaceous borders, woodland, and private section of one of the most famous chalk streams in the world.
Garden tours last for approximately 2 hours and start at the Porters’ Lodge.
2025 Garden tour dates:
24th April
15th May
19th June
17th July
21st August
18th September
Group Bookings
We welcome group bookings for all tours. For bookings of 10 people or more, please contact us or ring our Tours Coordinator on 01962 814 611.
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