Formal hall or formal meal is a meal held at some of the oldest universities in the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland at which students usually dress in formal attire and often gowns to dine. These are held commonly in the colleges of Oxford, Cambridge and Durham, at Trinity College Dublin, and in some halls and colleges at St Andrews, and the Australian sandstone universities, and at Trinity College, Toronto.
St John's College, Cambridge Formal Hall
Balliol College, Oxford
Christ Church, Oxford
King's College, Cambridge
Durham University is a collegiate public research university in Durham, England, founded by an Act of Parliament in 1832 and incorporated by royal charter in 1837. It was the first recognised university to open in England for more than 600 years, after Oxford and Cambridge, and is thus the third-oldest university in England. As a collegiate university, its main functions are divided between the academic departments of the university and its 17 colleges. In general, the departments perform research and provide teaching to students, while the colleges are responsible for their domestic arrangements and welfare.
William van Mildert, Bishop of Durham and one of the founders of the university
An examination taking place in Cosin's Library, 1842
Durham Castle (gatehouse pictured) houses University College, making it one of the oldest buildings currently being used to house a university in the world
Durham University College of Medicine, Newcastle, now the Sutherland Building of Northumbria University