Tom Tower by Ian Fraser |
Peckwater Quad by Ian Fraser |
Tom Quad by Ian Fraser |
The Cathedral Spire by Ian Fraser |
Winter over Christ Church Meadow by Tom Milner-Gulland |
The Meadow Building No.2 by Ian Fraser |
Christ Church Meadow, Oxford by Rod Craig |
Tom Tower by Tom Milner-Gulland |
Tom Tower from St. Aldates by Ray Rawlings |
Tom Tower by Peter Farley |
Tom Quad by Tom Milner-Gulland |
The Hall from the Gardens by Ray Rawlings |
The Dreaming Spires Oxford from Hinksey Heights by Tom Milner-Gulland |
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Christ Church was founded by King Henry VIII although the project had earlier been started by Cardinal Wolsey. It holds the unique dual role as a college of the university and also the cathedral of the diocese of Oxford. It is built on the original site of St Frideswide's Priory. The Great Quadrangle (Tom Quad) was completed by 1668, over one hundred and thirty years after it was started. The buildings on the north range, where Wolsey had originally planned to put the chapel, were given over to houses for the canons. Apart from the addition of a classical balustrade to the roof-line the new range of buildings are architecturally the same as the earlier buildings. In 1670 three flights of steps and the basin now known as Mercury were installed, the pond providing a reservoir for the college In 1682 Tom Tower was erected over Wolsey’s unfinished gateway and was designed by Christopher Wren to house Great Tom, the six and a half ton bell which used to hang in Osney Abbey until the Reformation. Wolsey’s architects had planned elaborate gate towers flanked by corner turrets but Wren substituted these with a square tower with a tall octagonal lantern topped with an ogee shaped dome. At 9.05pm every evening Great Tom tolls 101 times for the original number of students, plus one by bequest. |