THE UNIVERSITY PRESS
The University Press was removed from the Clarendon Building in Broad Street to a new printing-house
erected in Walton Street in 1830. (fn. 1) The front and south
wing of the new building was begun in 1826 to the
designs of Daniel Robertson, architect, and were
finished in 1828, Charles Smith being the contractor. (fn. 2)
The north wing and the west ranges were completed in
1830 under the direction of Edward Blore, architect,
Messrs. Smith being the contractors. (fn. 3) The front on
Walton St. consists of two wings, on the north and
south, joined by a screen which has a central monumental entrance-way, all in the Corinthian order. The
original building was built on a plinth of Headington
stone with a Bath stone facing and dressings. The
facing was repaired in 1864, 1907, and 1935. (fn. 4) Headington stone was used for parts of the interior. (fn. 5) There
have been alterations and additions to the original
structure. (fn. 6)
The Taylor Institution and the Ashmolean Museum
The combined building which contains the Taylor
Institution and the Ashmolean Museum of Art and
Archaeology occupies a site on the corner of St. Giles's
Street and Beaumont Street acquired by the University
from Worcester College. It was built in 1841–5 to the
Neo-Greek designs of Charles Robert Cockerell, R.A.,
which were based on a study of the temple of Apollo at
Bassae. (fn. 7) The contractors were Messrs. Baker of Lambeth. The main part of the structure is of Bath (Box
Ground) stone on a plinth of Permian sandstone; (fn. 8) the
pilasters and entablatures are of Portland stone and
the decorations are in terra cotta; the sculpture in the
tympanum of the pediment and the figures on the St.
Giles's front of the Taylor Institution were the work
of G. W. Nicholl. (fn. 9) The Ashmolean Museum, forming
the central range and the west wing, was altered and
extended in 1892–5 through the benefaction of
Charles D. E. Fortnum and again in 1900, 1923–8,
1933, and 1937–40. The last of these extensions forms
a frontage on Beaumont Street to the west and was built
in Clipsham and Bath (Monks Park) stone to the design
of E. Stanley Hall. (fn. 10) The Taylor Institution, which
forms the east wing, was extended northwards in 1932
and 1938 in Bath (Monks Park), Portland, and Clipsham stone to the designs of T. H. Hughes.
The Ashmolean Museum now contains exhibits
brought together from various sources within the
University. Sir Thomas Bodley, on founding his
library, provided a gallery therein for the display of
antiquities and to this were added in 1654 the marbles
left to the University by John Selden, the antiquary,
the Arundel collection of inscriptions in 1667, the
Arundel statues joining these latter in 1755; in 1683
other additions were made by Sir George Wheler.
All the collections mentioned above were housed in or
near the Bodleian precinct. In the original Ashmolean
Museum, built for the purpose to the west of the
Sheldonian Theatre in 1679–83, were exhibited the
Tradescant collections (mainly natural history and
presented to the University by Elias Ashmole) and
various manuscripts. These collections having become
too large were transferred to the Clarendon Building in
1832. In 1855 the natural history collection was moved
to the newly formed University Museum and the rest
to the Bodleian library. Meanwhile in the late 18th
century benefactions had been made to the University
by Francis Randolph and Sir Roger Newdigate. Sir
Robert Taylor who died in 1788 left under his will his
residuary estate amounting to £65,000 to found and
build an establishment for 'the teaching and improving
the European languages'. (fn. 11) The money, however, did
not pass to the University until 1835 and when the
Taylor Institution for Modern Languages was set up,
the opportunity was taken to combine this with the
'Randolph Gallery' in 1841. Other collections added in
the last half of the 19th century included the Chambers
Hall gift of antiquities and pictures, the Douce drawings and prints, the antiquities from the excavations of
Sir Flinders Petrie and those received from Sir John
and Sir Arthur Evans. Many of the original items of
the Tradescant museum and portraits were transferred
from the 'Old' Ashmolean Museum in Broad Street.
In 1908 the Ashmolean Museum and the University
Galleries were vested in the Board of Visitors of the
Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology. In 1937
the Griffith Institute for Egyptological and cognate
studies under the provisions of the wills of Francis
Llewellyn and Nora Christina Cobban Griffith was
accommodated in the north-west of the main buildings. (fn. 12)
The University Museum
History
In 1845 Dr. Henry Acland was appointed
Lee's Reader in anatomy in the University, and it was
partly to his forceful personality and partly to an enlightened encouragement of every form of science in
the University that the foundation and building of the
New Museum was due. (fn. 13) After the failure of those
interested at the meeting of the British Association at
Oxford in 1847 to gain the necessary support, it was not
until 1849 that a resolution was passed by a committee
of teachers led by Acland to build a new museum in
order to assemble under one roof 'all the materials explanatory of the organic beings placed upon the globe'. (fn. 14)
In 1853 a Delegacy was appointed to carry out the
scheme. Four acres of land in the Parks were bought
for £4,000 from Merton College for the site of the
building. (fn. 15) Thirty-two designs were received and
Convocation was asked to choose between two submitted by the Delegacy, one Palladian (by E. M.
Barry), (fn. 16) the other Venetian Gothic. After considerable
argument and pamphleteering the Gothic design of
Benjamin Woodward, in partnership with Sir Thomas
Deane and Thomas N. Deane, was accepted on 11
Dec. 1854. The contractors were Messrs. Lucas
Brothers of London who undertook to build the
Museum for £29,041, (fn. 17) W. C. Bramwell being clerk
of works. (fn. 18) The foundation stone was laid on 20 June
1855 by Edward, Earl of Derby, Chancellor of the
University. (fn. 19) The position of the stone was lost to
memory until 1906, when it was found, and a suitable
Latin inscription placed thereon. (fn. 20) In 1858, after repeated increases in the original estimate had been
demanded and sanctioned, the University withheld
further funds, and the building still remains incomplete
as regards some of its decorative sculpture. The
Museum itself was finished, however, in time to enable
the British Association to hold its meeting there in
1860. (fn. 21) By 1867 a total sum of £87,000 had been spent
on ground and buildings. (fn. 22)
John Ruskin, the intimate friend of Acland (fn. 23) , was
much involved in the scheme which was indeed to
become a type-specimen of the Gothic revival; (fn. 24) he
provided designs and for a time supervised the work
during the illness of Woodward. Ruskin, however,
said in 1859 that there was 'a discouraging aspect of
parsimony about it … the architect has done the utmost
he could with the means at his disposal and that just at
the point of reaching what was right he has been stopped
for want of funds'. He also gave warning 'Against
supposing that the ornamentation of the Museum is,
or can be as yet, a representation of what Gothic work
will be when its revival is complete.' He did not so
much criticize the design, but the execution of it, which
was a disappointment. (fn. 25) In later years in a lecture
delivered in the Museum he said he had never meant
that 'a handsome building could be built of common
brickbats'. (fn. 26) Acland (who had become Regius Professor of Medicine in 1858) (fn. 27) expressed the view in
1855 that 'Oxford was about to perform an experiment … how Gothic art could deal with those railway
materials—iron and glass.' (fn. 28)
The Building
The Museum was designed to
provide lecture rooms, laboratories, a library, and space for
the display of specimens. The plan consisted of a
central court covered with a glass roof supported on
cast-iron columns and divided into three main aisles.
The naturalistic ornamental ironwork of the roof was
made by Skidmore of Coventry at the cost of £5,000. (fn. 29)
The west external porch, an important feature of the
original design, the detail of which was intended to be
carved by James Woolner, was never carried out. (fn. 30)
On each of the four sides of the court are upper and
lower arcades or corridors. The entrance is on the
west, and on the outer sides of the corridors are the
surrounding laboratories of the various departments. (fn. 31)
The exterior is built in Bath (Box Ground) stone with
dressings of Hornton stone and red sandstone from
Bristol. The interior is of polychrome brickwork and
the ornamental sculpture and the materials used
throughout were intended to reflect the scientific purposes for which it was built, 'each column being hewn
from a different plant, flower, or fruit, all arranged in
a natural sequence.' (fn. 32) The series of six statues on
corbels against the piers of the west arcade within the
court of Hippocrates, Galileo, Liebnitz, Newton,
Humphrey Davy, and James Watt were carved by
Alexander Munro; (fn. 33) there is also a carved medallion
portrait of Benjamin Woodward, who died in 1861,
by Munro. (fn. 34) The naturalistic carving of the interior
arcading, carried out by those temperamental but
competent craftsmen John and James O'Shea and
one Whelan, (fn. 35) who were brought from Ireland by
Woodward, was left unfinished until 1905; it was then
continued according to the original plan of Professor
Phillips; (fn. 36) it was completed by 1914, mainly at the cost
of the Rev. H. T. Morgan, Trinity College, and by
public subscription. (fn. 37) In 1905 and for some time
subsequently this work was carved by Messrs. Mills
and Holt, two sculptors of the firm of Farmer and
Brindley of London. (fn. 38)
Since the Museum was completed there have been
several buildings added to the Science Area. A list
follows.
Museum House, to the south-east of the museum, was
built as the Curator's house, c. 1860, at the cost of
£1,300 in Gothic style. (fn. 39)
The Clarendon Laboratory was erected in 1868 in
Bath stone to the designs of Thomas N. Deane. This
building was altered (1946–8) and additions made to it
in Bladon stone with Clipsham stone dressings by
Messrs. H. V. Lanchester and T. A. Lodge, architects,
and it is now used as the Department of Geology and
Mineralogy. (fn. 40)
The University Observatory was built in yellow brick
in 1875 to the designs of Charles Barry, Jun. (fn. 41) A
lecture room was added in 1877. (fn. 42)
The Inorganic Chemistry Laboratory. This consisted
originally of a small structure built in 1860 adjoining
the museum on the south-west, the design being based
on that of the Abbot's kitchen at Glastonbury Abbey. (fn. 43)
The present main building was added in 1878 in Bath
stone. In 1901 the Glastonbury kitchen was divided
into two floors and adapted to give access to the new
Radcliffe Library, and a new building was made on the
north in 1902–3. Further extensions were made in
1920 and 1928–9. (fn. 44)
The Physiological Laboratory was built in 1884 in
stone and a wing added in brick in 1907, the architect
for the latter being John R. Wilkins of Oxford. (fn. 45) An
extension in stone on the north was made in 1920. (fn. 46)
The Pitt Rivers Museum was built in 1882–5 as an
extension on the east side of the court of the Museum
to hold the ethnological and archaeological collections
given to the University by Lt.-Gen. A. H. Lane Fox
Pitt Rivers. (fn. 47) An extension was made in 1907, John R.
Wilkins of Oxford being the architect. (fn. 48)
The building of the Department of Human Anatomy
on the east side of the Pitt Rivers Museum was built in
1891–2 in Bath (Box Ground) stone with additions in
1917 and 1925. (fn. 49) The south-west corner was reconstructed in 1937.
The building of the Department of Zoology and Comparative Anatomy on the north side of the museum was
built in 1898–9 in brick with stone dressings; a morphological building was added in 1901. (fn. 50) A second floor
to part was made in 1931 (fn. 51) and the brick north wing
extended to the west in 1937. (fn. 52)
The Radcliffe Science Library was built in Doulting
ashlar facing South Parks Rd. in 1901–3 to the design
of Sir T. G. Jackson at the cost of the Drapers' Company. A new wing fronting on to Parks Rd. was added
in 1933–4 in Bladon stone with Clipsham stone dressings to the design of Sir Hubert Worthington. (fn. 53)
The Department of Pathology was built in red brick
with Bath stone dressings in 1901 mainly at the cost of
Mr. Ewan Frazer. (fn. 54) In 1928 this building was adapted
for the Department of Pharmacology, and the new Sir
William Dunn Laboratory (Pathology) built at the east
end of South Parks Rd. in 1926–7; the latter is in red
brick with stone dressings to the plans of E. Warren at
the cost of £80,000. (fn. 55)
The building of the School of Rural Economy and the
School of Forestry was erected in 1907–8 by St. John's
College in Bath ashlar with Doulting stone dressings on
a site on the west side of Parks Rd. (fn. 56) In 1912 the gift of
£10,000 made by Mr. Walter Morrison provided for
an extension, costing £6,000 to the School of Rural
Economy. (fn. 57) A detached Soil Science Laboratory was
added in 1931.
The Electrical Laboratory, north of the museum, was
built in 1908–10 in red brick with stone dressings at
the cost of the Drapers' Company to the designs of
Sir T. G. Jackson. (fn. 58) An addition was built in stone on
the east side of the main block. (fn. 59) The laboratory of the
Department of Engineering was built to the designs of
W. C. Marshall at the junction of Parks Rd. and
Banbury Rd. in 1914 in red brick and stone dressings
and was extended by Edward Warren in 1927 and
1931 by G. P. Baynard. (fn. 60) The building of the Dyson
Perrins (Chemical) Laboratory was begun in 1913 and
finished in 1916 in red brick with stone dressings to
the designs of Paul Waterhouse, the contractors being
Armitage and Hodgson of Leeds. £5,000 was provided
by Mr. Dyson Perrins of Queen's College and further
sums from Endowment Trustees. In 1920–2 a wing
was added to the east of the main entrance as contemplated in the original design. (fn. 61) In 1934 an extension
for medical students was made, (fn. 62) and in 1940–1 a new
brick wing on the north was built. (fn. 63)
The Biochemical Laboratory, to the east of the
Physiological Department, was built in 1924–7 to the
'classic' design of H. Redfern at the cost of the Rockefeller Foundation. It is of brick with a facing of
'Aluminous cement to harmonize with the adjacent
stone buildings'. (fn. 64) An extension was made in 1936–7. (fn. 65)
The New Clarendon Physics Laboratory, to the north
of the Electrical Laboratory, was completed in 1940;
it is built in brick. (fn. 66)
The Laboratory for Physical Chemistry was erected
to the east of the Dyson Perrins Laboratory in 1939–40
at the cost of Viscount Nuffield; it is of brick. (fn. 67)
The buildings of the Imperial Forestry Institute and
the Schools of Forestry and Botany are to the west of the
Sir William Dunn Laboratory. To the designs of
Sir Hubert Worthington they were faced with Bladon
stone with Clipsham stone dressings in 1946–50, partly
from the gift of the Rajah of Sarawak and partly from
funds supplied by the Colonial Office, the University,
and the Rhodes Trust. (fn. 68)
The Oxford Union Society
The Oxford Union Society serves the undergraduate
members of the University in the dual capacity of a
social club and a debating society. In 1812 a beginning
was inspired principally by two undergraduates (fn. 69) of
New College and Brasenose. By 1822 rules were drawn
up, and early in the following year debates were instituted and the first meeting of the Society was held on
5 April. (fn. 70) In 1825 it was found necessary to frame new
rules for the suppression of disorder during debates, and
what had previously been known as the Oxford Union
Debating Society became the 'Oxford Union Society',
by which name it has since been known. (fn. 71) Debates,
however, were held in various 'rooms' in the town until
1856, when a debating hall was built in Frewin Court
to the Venetian Gothic design of Benjamin Woodward. (fn. 72) The bare walls of this debating hall (now used
as a library) attracted the notice of Dante Gabriel
Rossetti, himself not a member of the University, who
felt them to be 'hungry for pictures and he hungry to
fill them'; his friends William Morris and Edward
Burne-Jones, both then of Exeter College, were joined
by others in the University in forwarding a scheme for
decorating the walls of the hall. This was carried out
by the spring of 1858 at the cost of some £500, the
twelve designs being based on the Arthurian legend. (fn. 73)
By 1870, however, the paintings had suffered much
from damp and decay, having unfortunately been
executed in distemper. Nothing was done to preserve
them until 1936, (fn. 74) when the remains of what had been
termed the most important corporate effort of the PreRaphaelites (fn. 75) were treated and preserved by Professor
E. W. Tristram.
In 1864 the present red brick building with stone
dressings was built adjoining the debating hall to the
design of Thomas Deane. (fn. 76) In 1878 a new debating
hall was constructed, the architect being A. Waterhouse,
and in 1891 a new smoking-room was added. (fn. 77) A north
wing, containing a new library, rooms, and the steward's
house was erected in 1910–11 to the designs of
Messrs. Mills and Thorpe of Oxford. (fn. 78)
Examination Schools
The Examination Schools lie on the south side of
High Street between Logic Lane and Merton Street.
The buildings form three sides of a square with the
north wing facing the High Street, the east side being
open on to Merton Street. In 1875 the New Schools
Delegacy invited several architects to receive instructions and G. F. Bodley, Basil Champneys, Thomas
Newenham Deane, T. G. Jackson, and J. Oldrid Scott
were interviewed. (fn. 79) Designs were submitted and on
9 March 1876 Mr. (afterwards Sir) Thomas Graham
Jackson received the support of an absolute majority of
the Delegates and his plans were recommended for
adoption by Convocation: (fn. 80) on 15 June Convocation
approved the plans. (fn. 81) In his design Jackson's object was
'to give the building a collegiate character which would
not be out of harmony with the traditions of Oxford …
He chose 'that late eclectic style of which Oxford and
Cambridge contain admirable examples … so well
worked out in detail that they almost constitute an
Academic style by themselves'. (fn. 82) In his Recollections he
describes his design as being 'a sort of Renaissance' one
with long mullioned and transomed windows reminiscent of Kirby Hall and containing Elizabethan and
Jacobean features. (fn. 83) The contractor was Albert Estcourt of Gloucester with R. Edwards as clerk of works. (fn. 84)
The building was carried out in Clipsham stone (fn. 85) with
Headington hardstone for the foundations. (fn. 86) Messrs.
Farmer and Brindley executed the carving and marble
work. (fn. 87) Work commenced in the summer of 1877 and
on 13 May 1882 Estcourt handed over to Dr. Evans,
master of Pembroke College and Vice-Chancellor, the
key of the principal door of the building. (fn. 88) Excluding
the cost of the site, architect's charges, &c., but including all the carving, marble work, other decorations,
and furniture the cost amounted to £98,400, or at the
rate of 12½d. a cubic foot. (fn. 89)
The Indian Institute
The Indian Institute, at the east end of Broad St.,
was founded by public subscription in 1880 to form
a centre of teaching and research on all subjects
relative to India. It contains a library, now part of
the Bodleian system, and a museum of Indian arts and
industries. (fn. 90) The three-storied building was erected
in Milton stone (fn. 91) in 1883–96 to the designs of Basil
Champneys. It displays a mixture of oriental and
Gothic detail.
Building of the Delegates for the Examination of Schools
The building erected originally for the Delegacy of
Non-Collegiate Students, of Local Examinations, and
for the Inspection and Examination of Schools stands
on the north-west corner of Merton Street; it adjoins
the Examination Schools on the west and its front faces
the High Street. In May 1886 Mr. (afterwards Sir)
T. G. Jackson explained his plans for the High Street
front to the Curators of the University Chest and estimated the cost at £7,000. On 15 June 1886 this sum
was voted by Convocation. Mr. Burgess was appointed
clerk of works on 16 October and on 30 October 1886
the tender of Parnell & Son of Rugby of £5,118 for the
building was accepted; other items, such as heating,
lighting, and architect's fees brought the total to £6,412
thus leaving a margin of £588. Jackson's elevation for
the south front was approved in November 1886 and
by the autumn of 1887 the contractors finished the
work. (fn. 92) Doulting stone was used for the dressings and
the main walling was built in Bladon stone. (fn. 93)
The New Building, The Bodleian Library
The New Building of the Bodleian Library at the
corner of Broad St. and Parks Rd. was built in 1937–40
to the designs of Sir Giles Gilbert Scott. (fn. 94) It is a steel
and concrete structure with the external walls of Bladon
stone and Clipsham stone dressings. The interior lining
of the walls is in polished Taynton stone. Under
Broad St. and the Clarendon Quadrangle a tunnel was
constructed to connect the New with the Old Library
through which runs a mechanical conveyor for the
transference of books. (fn. 95)