Samuel Butler Room

Welcome to the SBR!

The Samuel Butler Room (SBR) is the postgraduate students' society at St John's College, University of Cambridge. 

"The SBR" is sometimes used to refer to several different things:

• The postgraduate student body. All master's and PhD students at St John's, as well as clinical-year medical and veterinary students, are automatically members of the Samuel Butler Room Society.

• The Samuel Butler Room Committee. The SBR Committee is elected annually to act as representatives for postgraduate students, to organise and promote events, and to maintain and provide resources and facilities for SBR members. See the current committee members here.

• The literal Samuel Butler Room. The SBR is also the name of the postgraduate common room in the College, located in I2 First Court. The room is available for all SBR members to use, and is where we host most of our events. In addition, we have a graduate study room located in the All Saints Passage supervision rooms.

Keep Updated

To keep updated with the SBR, you can follow us on Instagram. You can also get in touch with our Committee, and check out our upcoming Events. 

Current and prospective students can find resources and information about welfare, facilities, accommodation, and postgraduate life on the Resources & Facilities page.

History of the SBR

The Samuel Butler Room Society was founded in 1960 as a society for the postgraduate students of St John's College (what most other colleges call their MCR or Middle Combination Room). The society and postgraduate common room are named in honour of Samuel Butler, a Victorian author, polymath, and sheep farmer who was a student at St John's from 1854 to 1858. You can read more about the man himself here and more about the founding of the SBR here.