| College Buildings |
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Original Main Buildings
The main building was erected in a single building operation in 1610-13. The architect (though also referred to as ‘master mason’ in the fashion of the times) was William Arnold, who was also responsible for Montacute House and Dunster Castle in Somerset, and was involved in the building of Hatfield House for Robert Cecil, Lord Salisbury, James I’s Lord Treasurer. The style of the building is a fairly traditional Oxford Gothic, modified by classical decorative detail, most notably the ‘frontispiece’ framing statues of James I and the Founders immediately facing visitors as they enter the College. Classical, too, is the over-powering emphasis on symmetry. The central quadrangle was originally gravelled throughout; the present lawn was only laid down in 1809. The hall and chapel may normally be seen during the college opening hours. The hall, one of the largest in Oxford, is notable for its great hammer-beam roof and for the Jacobean woodwork of the entrance screen. The portraits include those of the founders and of distinguished members of the college. The large portrait in the gallery is of Lord Lovelace, who held Oxford for William of Orange during the Revolution of 1688; the inscription records his role in freeing England 'from popery and slavery'.
The chapel is reached through the door in staircase 3. The screen, similar to that in the hall, was carved by John Bolton (he was paid £82 for both). Originally Jacobean woodwork ran right round the chapel. The present stone reredos was inserted in the east end in 1834. The magnificent East window depicting Jonah's whale, top right, is always a favourite and was made by a Dutchman, Bernard van Linge, for £113 in 1622. The elegant young man reclining on his monument is Sir John Portman, baronet, who died in 1624 as a nineteen-year old undergraduate. Another monument is in the form of a pile of books; it commemorates Thomas Harris, one of the fellows of the college appointed at the foundation. He died in 1614, aged 20. The Chapel organ dates from 1862. It is one of the few instruments by Henry Willis, the doyen of Victorian English organ builders, to survive without substantial modification of its tonal design. After the chapel visitors should go through staircase 3 to the garden, one of the best in Oxford. It was laid out in its present form in 1796. They should then go back through the main quadrangle to the more informal 'back quad' (through staircase 4 or staircase 6). The large five-bay building to their right (staircase 9) was built as college rooms in 1693. Many of the buildings are adapted for college purposes from other uses; they include a former warehouse which the Oxford University Press used for storing Bibles (staircases 10 and 11), the upper floors of the King's Arms Hotel (the ground floor still flourishes as a popular student pub) and several domestic buildings. The raised 'deck' on the south side was designed by the architects Gillespie, Kidd and Coia, and was inserted in 1970. It includes a small hidden quadrangle (the 'Holywell quad') and an ingenious piece of in-filling which combines college rooms with an area originally constructed as a music shop which is now a restaurant. The long building in Cotswold stone was designed by G. G. Goddard and built in 1951. The steps between the building and the old college lead to a massive glass and concrete building with lead roof, also designed by Gillespie, Kidd and Coia, and opened in 1978. It includes a large library and sets of student rooms.
Next to it is the Bowra Building, designed by MacCormac, Jamieson & Pritchard, and opened in 1992. It consciously evokes Elizabethan-Jacobean great houses, Hardwick Hall in particularly, in order to relate to the main building. As well as student rooms it also includes a cafeteria, bar, seminar rooms, squash court and the Moser Theatre. A particular feature is the narrow pedestrian ‘street’ through the spine which manages to appropriate the bell-tower of New College as an impressive end-feature. The Holywell Music Room is probably the oldest building of its kind in Europe. It was designed by the Thomas Camplin, at that time Vice- Principal of St Edmund Hall, and opened in July 1748. The interior has been restored to a near replica of the original and contains the only surviving Donaldson organ, built in 1790 by John Donaldson of Newcastle and installed in 1985 after being restored to the strictest standards of historic conservation.
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