St Peter's College is one of the constituent colleges of the

University of Oxford , mottoeng = The Lord is my light , established = , endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019) , budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20) , chancellor ...

and is located in

New Inn Hall Street New Inn Hall Street is a street in central Oxford, England, and is one of Oxford's oldest streets. It is a shopping street running north–south parallel and to the west of Cornmarket Street, with George Street to the north and Bonn Square at ...

Oxford Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

, United Kingdom. It occupies the site of two of the university's medieval halls, dating back to at least the 14th century. The modern college was founded by Francis James Chavasse, former Bishop of Liverpool, opened as St Peter's Hall in 1929, and achieved full collegiate status as St Peter's College in 1961. Founded as a men's college, it has been coeducational since 1979. As of 2019, the college had an estimated

financial endowment A financial endowment is a legal structure for managing, and in many cases indefinitely perpetuating, a pool of financial, real estate, or other investments for a specific purpose according to the will of its founders and donors. Endowments are o ...

of £49.6 million.

History

Medieval halls

Although founded in its current form in the 20th century, St Peter's occupies a central Oxford location on the site of two of the university's medieval halls. The first Master of St Peter's called the acquisition of the site "a chance of ages". The site was originally the location of Trilleck's Inn, later known as New Inn Hall, and Rose Hall. Trillecks' Inn was founded in the 14th century by Bishop Trilleck and, as New Inn Hall, merged into Balliol College in 1887. Rose Hall was given to New College by William of Wykeham. New College finally sold the site to the rector of St Peter-le-Bailey in 1859 and 1868 as a site for a new church, now the college chapel.

St Peter's Hall

The history of the college in its present form began in 1923 when Francis James Chavasse, former Bishop of Liverpool, returned to Oxford. He was concerned at the rising cost of education in the older universities in Britain, and projected St Peter's as a college where promising students, who might otherwise be deterred by the costs of college life, could obtain an Oxford education. After Francis James died in 1928, his son Christopher Chavasse launched a memorial appeal in his father's name to fund the project, raising £150,000 from donors including Ella Rowcroft to convert and build new buildings on the site. St Peter's was licensed by the

university A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United Stat ...

as a hostel that year and opened with 13 residents. The following year, 1929, it was recognised as a permanent private hall and grew to 40 students. A later significant benefactor was William Morris, 1st Viscount Nuffield, who would also found

Nuffield College Nuffield College () is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. It is a graduate college and specialises in the social sciences, particularly economics, politics and sociology. Nuffield is one of Oxford's newer c ...

. During the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

, St Peter's Hall became home to evacuated students from

Westfield College Westfield College was a small college situated in Hampstead, London, from 1882 to 1989. It was the first college to aim to educate women for University of London degrees from its opening. The college originally admitted only women as students and ...

, a women's college of the

University of London The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in post-nominals) is a federal public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The university was established by royal charter in 1836 as a degr ...

, and its students were boarded out to other colleges.

St Peter's College

In 1947, St Peter's was reclassified as a 'new foundation', and was finally recognised as a full college in 1961 with the granting of a

royal charter A royal charter is a formal grant issued by a monarch under royal prerogative as letters patent. Historically, they have been used to promulgate public laws, the most famous example being the English Magna Carta (great charter) of 1215, b ...

. In 1979, St Peter's started admitting women and became

co-educational Mixed-sex education, also known as mixed-gender education, co-education, or coeducation (abbreviated to co-ed or coed), is a system of education where males and females are educated together. Whereas single-sex education was more common up to t ...

Buildings

St Peter's has a varied set of buildings, many of them much older than the college itself. The college has, in effect, adapted existing buildings to provide the collective facilities needed for college life, and built new ones to provide student accommodation.

Linton Quad

Linton House, a Georgian rectory dating from 1797, stands on the east side of Linton Quad along New Inn Hall Street. It was originally built as the offices for the Oxford Canal Company and called Wyaston House. It was bought in 1878 by Canon Henry Linton who converted it to a

rectory A clergy house is the residence, or former residence, of one or more priests or ministers of religion. Residences of this type can have a variety of names, such as manse, parsonage, rectory or vicarage. Function A clergy house is typically o ...

for the

Church of St Peter-le-Bailey The Church of St Peter-le-Bailey is a church on New Inn Hall Street in central Oxford, England. It was formerly next to Bonn Square, which was originally the churchyard. Now it is located halfway up New Inn Hall Street to the north. Several chu ...

. Now known as Linton House, it serves as the porter's lodge (the entrance to the college) and is also home to the college library. On the south side of the quad stands the college chapel, the

. Built in 1874 and incorporating some of the stone of an earlier church, it is the third church of that name on or close to the site since the 12th century. Memorials to members of the Chavasse family in the chapel include Captain Noel Chavasse's original grave cross, a large

bas-relief Relief is a sculptural method in which the sculpted pieces are bonded to a solid background of the same material. The term '' relief'' is from the Latin verb ''relevo'', to raise. To create a sculpture in relief is to give the impression that th ...

of Bishop Francis Chavasse at prayer and the Chavasse memorial window. The quad also includes the Latner building.

Hannington Quad

St Peters College Oxford Hannington Hall 1

In the Hannington Quad stands Hannington Hall. It dates from 1832 and is the only surviving part of New Inn Hall. The building was originally commissioned by John Cramer, principal of New Inn Hall, as student accommodation and was designed by architect Thomas Greenshields. When New Inn Hall was absorbed by

Balliol Balliol may refer to: * House of Balliol, Lords of Baliol and their fief * Balliol College, Oxford ** Balliol rhyme, a doggerel verse form with a distinctive meter, associated with Balliol College * John Balliol (King John of Scotland) (1249–1314 ...

in 1887 and most of New Inn Hall's buildings were demolished to make room for the Central Girls School building (now part of St Peter's Chavasse Quad), the Cramer building survived. It was bought by Reverend Talbot Rice, rector of St-Peter-le-Bailey, in 1897 and renamed after the Victorian missionary Bishop

James Hannington James Hannington (3 September 1847 – 29 October 1885) was an English Anglican missionary and martyr. He was the first Anglican bishop of East Africa. Early life Hannington was born on 3 September 1847 at Hurstpierpoint in Sussex, England, ...

. After the founding of St Peter's it was remodelled to function as the dining hall. The quad was formed by the construction of an accommodation block designed by Sir Herbert Baker and Fielding Dodd behind the older buildings.

Chavasse Quad

New Inn Hall Street Schools - line drawing by Leonard Stokes

The Central Girls' School to the South of the original site of the college was designed by Leonard Stokes and completed in 1901. It was converted into the college's Chavasse Building between 1984 and 1986 and provides living accommodation for students and seminar rooms. In 2018 the new Hubert Perrodo Building was completed offering further on-site accommodation and conference spaces. The Middle Common Room (MCR) for postgraduates, and a music room are also located in the Pastry School in the quad's southwest corner.

Mulberry Quad

The Mulberry Quad lies to the northwest of the Linton and provides for the direct access to the JCR. The Morris Building, currently student accommodation, was given by Lord Nuffield in memory of his mother, Emily Morris. The Matthews block houses the JCR as well as the student-run bar. The Dorfman Centre lies in the northwest corner of the quad. Mulberry Quad also provides access to Bulwarks Lane.

Canal House

Canal House, the master's lodge, dates from the early 19th century.

Annexes

St Peter's also has a few off-site accommodation blocks for students, a few minutes away from the main college site.

St Thomas' Street Park End Street is a street in central Oxford, England, to the west of the centre of the city, close to the railway station at its western end. Location To the east, New Road links Park End Street to central Oxford. To the west, Frideswid ...

and St George's Gate house undergraduates, while Paradise Street (which was officially opened in June 2008) houses postgraduates and fourth-year undergraduates.

Student life

The student-run Junior Common Room organises a wide variety of social events throughout the academic year, ranging from formal events to celebrate such things as Burns Night (complete with haggis and poetry) to creatively themed parties that run into the early hours of the morning. The college is one of the few to feature its own student-edited arts magazine, ''Misc'', which is published termly. The college also has a student-run college bar, which serves the Cross Keys cocktail.

Sports

The college has sports teams competing in rowing, cricket, football, hockey, rugby, and pool. It shares with Exeter and Hertford Colleges a sports field which has two cricket pitches and pavilions, two rugby and football pitches, a hockey pitch, tennis courts and a squash court. The college boat club, St Peter's College Boat Club, competes regularly. The club shares a boathouse with Somerville College Boat Club, University College Boat Club and Wolfson College Boat Club.

Locomotive

Taking the original name of the college,

GWR 6959 Class The Great Western Railway (GWR) 6959 or Modified Hall Class is a class of 4-6-0 steam locomotive. They were a development by Frederick Hawksworth of Charles Collett's earlier GWR Hall Class, Hall Class named after English and Welsh English count ...

steam locomotive no. 7900 was built in 1949 for British Railways and named "Saint Peter's Hall" (no abbreviation). One of the brass nameplates from the now-scrapped locomotive survives in the college.

People associated with the college

Masters

* Christopher Maude Chavasse (1929–1940) *

Julian Thornton-Duesbery Julian Percy Thornton-Duesbery (7 September 1902 – 1 April 1985) was a British Church of England priest and academic. He was Master of St Peter's Hall, Oxford (later known as St Peter's College) from 1940 to 1944, and from 1955 to 1968. He als ...

(1940–1944 and 1955–1968) * Robert Wilmot Howard (1945–1955) * Alec Cairncross (1969–1978) *

Gerald Aylmer Gerald Edward Aylmer, (30 April 1926, Greete, Shropshire – 17 December 2000, Oxford) was an English historian of 17th century England. Gerald Aylmer was the only child of Edward Arthur Aylmer, from an Anglo-Irish naval family, and Phoebe ...

(1979–1991) * John Barron (1991–2003) *

Bernard Silverman Sir Bernard Walter Silverman, (born 22 February 1952) is a British statistician and former Anglican clergyman. He was Master of St Peter's College, Oxford, from 1 October 2003 to 31 December 2009. He is a member of the Statistics Department ...

(2003–2009) * Mark Damazer (2010–2019) * Judith Buchanan (from October 2019)

Fellows

Notable alumni

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Lord Condon Paul Leslie Condon, Baron Condon, (born 10 March 1947) is a British retired police officer. He was the Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police from 1993 to 2000. Education Condon read Jurisprudence at St Peter's College, Oxford and was made ...

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* Edward Akufo-Addo, 2nd

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* Guy Arnold, explorer, traveller, political commentator, Africa expert and writer * Wilbert Awdry, creator of

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* Simon Beaufoy, writer of the screenplay for the films ''

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'' and '' Slumdog Millionaire'' * Graham Bell, Canadian academic, writer and evolutionary biologist * Michael Blomquist, American rower and former world champion * Kenneth Bloomfield, Head of the Northern Ireland Civil Service and member of the Independent Commission for the Location of Victims' Remains * E. A. Boateng, Ghanaian academic, first vice chancellor of the University of Cape Coast * Mike Carey, author * Mark Carney, former Governor of the Bank of England * Kenneth Chan Ka-lok, member of the Hong Kong Legislative Council * Alwyn Collinson, founder of the RealTimeWWII project * Paul Condon, Baron Condon, Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police from 1993 to 2000 * Gordon Corera, BBC security correspondent * Peter Dale, poet * Jamie Dalrymple, Middlesex, Glamorgan and England cricketer * Hugh Dancy, actor * David Davies, football administrator *

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, later Baron Dormand of Easington, Labour MP for Easington, 1970–87 * Modjaben Dowuona, first Registrar of the

University of Ghana The University of Ghana is a public university located in Accra, Ghana. It the oldest and largest of the thirteen Ghanaian national public universities. The university was founded in 1948 as the University College of the Gold Coast in the Br ...

; Minister for Education (1966–1969) * David Eastwood, Vice-Chancellor of the

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* Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, chef and TV presenter * Paul S. Fiddes, former principal of

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, BBC Washington correspondent *

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, chairman of the

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and trustee of the Scott Trust *

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, editor of ''

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'' * Robert Hanson, financier * Afua Hirsch, author * Andy Hornby, chief executive of

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, former chief executive of HBOS * General Sir Nicholas Houghton, Chief of the Defence Staff * Rex Masterman Hunt, Governor of the

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* Martin Ivens, editor of ''

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'' * Kurt Jackson, painter *

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, first woman consecrated a bishop in the

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, and current

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of the college * Helen Lewis, ''

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'' deputy editor * Ken Loach, film and television director * Richard Lloyd Parry, Asia editor for ''

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'' of London *

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, former

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* François Perrodo, president of the energy business

* John Pritchard, Bishop of Oxford (2007–2014) *

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, former

and

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* Gareth Russell, author *

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, vice-chancellor of De Montfort University *

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, First Sea Lord and Chief of Naval Staff *

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(1964–2015), composer, organist and choirmaster * Jigyel Ugyen Wangchuck, former heir to the throne of

Bhutan Bhutan (; dz, འབྲུག་ཡུལ་, Druk Yul ), officially the Kingdom of Bhutan,), is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is situated in the Eastern Himalayas, between China in the north and India in the south. A mountainou ...

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, American lawyer and society reporter * William Wickham (1831–1897), alumnus of New Inn Hall and MP for Petersfield * Daniel Woolf, historian; principal and vice-chancellor (2009–2019) of Queen's University, Canada * Ben Wright, BBC political correspondent

References

External links

St Peter's College
– official website
St Peter's College Middle Common Room
{{DEFAULTSORT:Saint Peter's College, Oxford Colleges of the University of Oxford Educational institutions established in 1929 Buildings and structures of the University of Oxford 1929 establishments in England