University College Quad

The foundation of the College began by way of a serious riot in Paris between the students and the citizens such as so often occurred in Oxford; King Henry III took advantage ofthis situation by inviting "the masters and the university of scholars of Paris" to come and study in England, promising them much liberty and many privileges. One of those who came, Will­iam of Durham, bequeathed money which led to the purchase of property in Oxford, beginning in 1249 and continuing to add to the original purchase, the statutes not being issued until 1280, the acknowledged beginning of the present college.

The legend that King Alfred was the founder of University College which can be traced back to 1381 persisted to as recently as 1872, when a distinguished historian sent some burnt cakes to the ceremoniously arranged millenary festivities of the College, with the interesting information that they had been dug up in Athelney!

In 1292 a notable statute admitted men who later formed the chief element in every college (except All Souls) commen­sales or commoners, undergraduates paying all their expenses.

It is sad to relate that none of the original buildings now remains. The smaller of the college's two quads owes its existence, as does the Radcliffe Camera, by Gibbs, the Radcliffe Infirmary 1770, the Radcliffe Observatory, by James Wyatt 1794, to the munificence of the famous Dr. Radcliffe, whose statue is on the inner side of the gate tower.

The marble statue by Onslow Ford of the drowned Shelley who entered the college in 1810 was placed in a chamber built specially for this purpose in 1892.

In recent years, through the munificence of the college's Master, Dr. A. L. Goodhart, beautiful additions have been made to the buildings.

The dates of some of the other of the college's buildings; First Quad 1634-75, Second Quad 1716-19, Hall 1637, Gatehouse 1638, Chapel 1666, Library 1861.