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I have a new website at http://www.kton.demon.co.uk/ if anyone is interested.
Member since:12.06.2000
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Christ Church is neither the oldest nor the most attractive College in Oxford but it is surely the grandest, just as its original founder Cardinal Wolsey intended.
As the setting for Evelyn Waugh’s ‘Brideshead Revisited’ suggests, nowhere more so than in the quads of Christ church does one catch the atmosphere of the life of a privileged university student.
This college has it all: great history, great students, a great quad, the largest hall, a cathedral, albeit a small one, for its chapel, an art gallery and beautiful meadows bordering the river Isis.
Its history melds with that of the city itself via the shrine of St. Frideswide (1289). St. Frideswide, believed to be a Saxon princess who is the patron saint of Oxford, is thought to have been the abbess of the double
monastery based where Christ Church now stands (700) which is where Oxford first began to exist. The first mention of this legend is quite late but recent archaeological finds tend to support it and there is an Anglo-Saxon cemetery under Tom quad.
Cardinal Wolsey who had the ancient priory on the site suppressed founded Christ church in 1525. He intended Cardinal College, as it was originally called, to be the grandest in the country. But when he and Henry VIII fell out the king took over and appropriated nearby Osney priory, which was to be the cathedral, for funds and re-endowed it the college as Christ Church. So it happened that the Romanesque priory church of St. Fridewides became the cathedral of Oxford.
The next phase of building came with the building of Tom Tower and the quad in 1681. Tom tower, designed by Christopher Wren, is one of the most famous sights of Oxford. It houses the great bell ‘Tom’ from which it gets its name. This huge bell, which originally hung in Osney Priory and which may also have been called ’Mary’ at one time, sends its 101 chimes across Oxford every evening at 9.05 as if to call its original students back to its confines. It is at the gates of this College you are most likely to see another traditional Oxford sight – a Bulldog (a university policeman or Proctor wearing a bowler hat) If you get past him you might get in free. Through the gates Tom quad exudes a mysterious if not esoteric quality, being laid in the pattern of the astrologer's symbol for Earth with ‘Mercury’ balancing symbolically in the gracious pool in the centre. Perhaps here in Oxford is indeed a special centre of some kind. Other quads include Peckwater, Canterbury and Blue Boar quads.
Famous students of Christ Church include 13 Prime Ministers including Gladstone and Robert Peel, John Locke, John and Charles Wesley, John Ruskin, Albert Einstein and W.H. Auden. Probably the most famous Dean is Henry Liddell though not so much in his own right, although much deserved, but for being the father of Alice (of Wonderland fame).
Alice Liddell was the daughter of the Dean and it was to her and her sisters that the Rev. C. L. Dodgson (aka Lewis Carroll) told the story of Alice in the wonderland (or Underground as it was first called). This famous book began on a rowing trip on 4th July 1862 up through Port Meadow to Godstow. On the trip they would have passed Binsey where the ‘treacle well” mentioned in the mad hatter’s tea party is really located. The treacle (an Anglo-Saxon word meaning cure-all) well is associated with St. Frideswide and Alice would have known all about it as new stained glass window depicting the legend had been recently installed in the Cathedral. A famous member of the Pre-Raphelite brotherhood Edward Burne-Jones designed the Frideswide window and others there.
There is no admission charge to the Cathedral and the choir sings evensong at 6pm in term times (well worth hearing). Further details are available from the web site.
Christ Church meadows offer a pocket of peace and some nice vistas of the ‘dreaming spires’. There are several entrances but the main one is in St. Aldates through the War memorial gardens. Apart from the famous ‘Broad Walk’ other paths follow the walls of Merton to the botanical Gardens and another will take you alongside the river Thames or Isis till its meeting with the Cherwell. There’s often some quite strange looking cattle grazing these meadows and watch out for White Rabbits dashing around. No admission charge.
Christ Church Picture Gallery can be visited apart from the college by using the back entrance of the college in Oriel Square. It is open daily but only in the afternoons on Sundays. The foundation of this collection was a gift from General John Guise in 1765 but it has been extended and now includes over 1700 works of art. The gallery included paintings by Carraci, Lippi, Tintoretto, Van Dyke and sketches by da Vinci, Durer and Verrochio. These names give an indication of the types of works displayed. I personally found it all a bit samey and was more interested in the icons on display. There is usually an additional special exhibition on display details of which will be available from the website. Presently the admission charge to the Gallery is £2.
I think the admission charge to the college is about £4 unless you can sneak past the Bulldog and get in through the front entrance. There is wealth of information available on everything about Christ Church from http://www.chch.ox.ac.uk/
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The way to avoid paying is to walk in boldly and, if challenged by a porter, declare in a loud voice (as if he ought to have recognised you) "I am a member of the house." Of course, it helps if you really are one, but in my experience (several times) no one has ever checked.
richardashdowne 01.02.2001 14:08
Just to add, Dean Liddell is semi-famous in his own right as half of the team who produced the great Greek Lexicon, now commonly know as Liddell and Scott.
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