Founded in 1624, Pembroke College is concentrated in its traditional site in the centre of Oxford but it has a fine new building on the Thames, as well as its own renovated graduate facilities close by the College. The main site is particularly attractive, being primarily built between the seventeenth and nineteenth centuries with Cotswold stone. The college is named after the third Earl of Pembroke who was patron of William Shakespeare. The official founder of the university was James VI of Scotland and it is for this reason that graduating students are allowed to wear tassels in their hats.