Divinity School

Opposite to the main entrance to the quadrangle is the door leading into the Divinity School, perhaps the most beautiful medieval building in Oxford and the oldest surviving one built separately (1427-83) for a purely university purpose, to house the lectures and disputations of the theology faculty. It has a remarkably fine and elaborate fan-vaulted ceiling, and many of the numerous bosses are carved with the initials or arms of those who contributed to the cost of the building.

At the far end of the Divinity School is a door giving entrance into the Convocation House. Built in 1634-7, this room has a fan-vaulted ceiling and fine Jacobean woodwork, including dark oak panelling carved with a perspective effect of pedimented arches, the Chancellor's Throne with a hexagonal canopy and simple benches. This room housed the Parliament of England during the Civil War (1642-6), and to this day has no artificial lighting. It is still used for University ceremonies, notably for the election of the Chancellor.