St Anne's College, Oxford

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St Anne's College
Latin: Collegium Sanctae Annae


UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD

Consulto et audacter

Wolfson Building, St Anne's College, University of Oxford.jpg
Wolfson Building, St Anne's College
St-Anne's College Oxford Coat Of Arms.svg
Principal: Helen King
Website: st-annes.ox.ac.uk
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Location
Grid reference: SP51030731
Location: 51°45’44"N, 1°15’43"W

St Anne's College is a constituent college of the University of Oxford.[1] It was founded in 1879 originally as a women's college, gaining full college status in 1959. It has admitted men since 1979.

The college has some 450 undergraduate and 200 graduate students and retains an original aim of allowing women of any financial background to study at Oxford. It still has a student base with a higher than average proportion of female students.[2] The college stands between Woodstock and Banbury roads, next to the University Parks.

History

Society of Oxford Home-Students (1879–1942)

What is now St Anne's College began as part of the Association for the Education of Women, the first institution in Oxford with that aim. It then became the Society of Oxford Home-Students.[3] Unlike other women's associations, the society had no fixed site, instead offering lodgings in houses spread across Oxford. This allowed students of various financial backgrounds to study at Oxford, as the cost of accommodation in women's halls was often prohibitive.[3] In the early 20th century, the college housed some students in hostels managed by Angloican and Roman Catholic nuns. Springfield, St Mary was managed by Anglican nuns of the Community of St Mary the Virgin in houses in Banbury Road where they, and other hostels, "had to exercise control over their students according to the rules of the college".[4][5] Springfield St Mary was advertised in 1985 in Country Life Magazine as being for sale.[6]

From 1898 till 1906, the Society of Home Students saw some of its members in residence at Wychwood School, then situated at 77 Banbury Road. They were supervised by Miss Margaret Lee who in 1913, was appointed Tutor to the Oxford Home Students, holding this position until she retired in 1936.[7][8][9][10]

In 1910, the Society of Oxford Home-Students, with the other women's societies, was recognised by the university. In 1912, the society acquired its first tutors, in German, History and English Literature. In the 1920s, the principals of the Women's societies became the first women to receive degrees from the university. The society in the early 1930s still had no centralised site, but within a few years the current location was chosen and by 1937 construction of Hartland House was underway.[3]

St Anne's Society (1942–1952)

In 1942, the Society of Oxford Home-Students was renamed the St Anne's Society and given its coat of arms by Eleanor Plumer (Principal, 1940–1953).[11] The name St Anne's was chosen as historically, there was a chapel of Saint Anne at the University Church of St Mary the Virgin where, from the college's earliest days, the whole student body would gather for termly services.[12]

St Anne's College (1952 onwards)

In 1952, the St Anne's Society acquired a royal charter as St Anne's College and in 1959 full college status along with the other women's colleges.[11] The Principal at the time, Mary Ogilvie, pressed for a transition from many disparate dining rooms to a common building. This led to the construction of the dining hall completed in 1959 and visited by Queen Elizabeth II in 1960. Meanwhile student numbers grew to nearly 300, which called for more accommodation and led to the construction of the Wolfson and Rayne buildings in 1964 and 1968. In 1977, the decision was made to become coeducational, with the first male undergraduates matriculating in 1979.[11]

Since then, St Anne's has continued to use female words and pronouns, such as "alumnae" to refer to current and former students. The college explains this: "On 17 June 1979, in the nervous time when the first male Fellows had been elected, and the first male students admitted though they had not yet arrived, a note from the Dean to Governing Body asks hesitantly 'Would Governing Body wish "he" (or "he/she") to be substituted for "she" throughout the College Regulations?' Eventually the question was answered (or perhaps avoided) by a carefully worded statement that remains in the preamble to our Regulations: 'words importing the feminine gender shall include the masculine and vice versa, where the construction so permits and the Regulations do not otherwise expressly provide.'"[13]

In 2023, work began on the full reconstruction of the Bevington Road accommodation blocks, in order to make them more suitable for future generations of students.[14]

Location and buildings

Grounds

Rear of Bevington Road

The college grounds are bounded by Woodstock Road to the west, Banbury Road to the east, and Bevington Road to the north. These grounds house all of the college's administrative and academic buildings, undergraduate accommodation, as well as the hall, which is among the largest in Oxford. The College formerly owned a number of houses throughout Oxford used for undergraduate accommodation, some of which used to be boarding houses of the Society of Oxford Home-Students. Many of these properties were sold off to fund the building of the Ruth Deech Building, completed in 2005.

Victorian houses

The college uses 1–10 Bevington Road (also known colloquially as "the Bevs"),[15] 58/60 Woodstock Road, and 39/41 Banbury Road (also known as "Above the Bar") as undergraduate accommodation, typically for freshers. The junior (undergraduate) post room is located in 10 Bevington Road, the college laundry in 58/60 Woodstock Road, and the college bar, including a pool room, in 39/41 Banbury Road. Five additional Victorian houses (27/29 and 37 Banbury Road and 48/50 Woodstock Road) hold teaching rooms, seminar rooms, music practice rooms, and college offices. In July 2023, the Bevington Road accommodation began a two-year renovation project. [16]

Dining Hall

The Dining Hall, built in 1959, is among the largest in Oxford with a capacity of 300. Three meals are served daily in hall apart from weekends, when only brunch is served. It is also used for college collections (internal college exams) and on occasion college 'bops' (costume parties).

Library

The college library has over 100,000 volumes, making it one of the largest in Oxford. It is split between the original library in Hartland House and the Tim Gardam building, which opened officially in 2017.[17]

The Tim Gardam Building

The original college library in Hartland House now houses the law, arts, and humanities collections.

The new library and academic centre was named after Tim Gardam (principal 2004–2016) and completed in 2016. It is on the site of the former Founders' Gatehouse, which was built in 1966 and was the college lodge until 2005. It covers the area previously taken by the 54 Woodstock Road cottage. It provides various study and seminar spaces and 1,500 metres of bookshelves for the college's growing book collection. The plans by Fletcher Priest Architects were inspired by Oxford's historic buildings.[18]

The Tim Gardam Building also features two gardens; a roof garden overlooking the dining hall, and a sunken courtyard accessible through the basement.

Gallery

  • 37 Banbury Road

  • The Rayne Building viewed from the quadrangle

  • The rear of Trenaman House

  • Trenaman House (Upper)

  • Wolfson Building

  • Hartland House in its parkland setting

Outside links

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 ("Wikimedia Commons" has material
about St Anne's College, Oxford)

References

  1. ↑ "St Anne's College | University of Oxford". https://www.ox.ac.uk/admissions/undergraduate/colleges/college-listing/st-annes-college. 
  2. ↑ "Undergraduate admissions statistics | University of Oxford" (in en). https://www.ox.ac.uk/about/facts-and-figures/admissions-statistics/undergraduate-students. 
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 "St Anne's History". http://www.st-annes.ox.ac.uk/about/st-annes-history.html. 
  4. ↑ Template:Cite report
  5. ↑ Anson, Peter Frederick (1964). The Call of the Cloister Religious Communities and Kindred Bodies in the Anglican Communion. S.P.C.K.. p. 258. 
  6. ↑ Springfield, Banbury Road, Oxford. 178. 1985. 1348. https://books.google.com/books?id=N3IhAQAAMAAJ. Retrieved 12 April 2021. "BANBURY ROAD, OXFORD By order of the Community of St. Mary the Virgin at Wantage." 
  7. ↑ "London's National Portrait Gallery – Miss Lee". NPG – London. https://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/person/mp101069/margaret-lucy-lee. "By this time [1896] Margaret had made a plan to take rooms in Oxford for both of them and help Miss [A.S.] Batty to establish a school for girls. This plan was successfully carried out. Margaret and Miss Batty established themselves at 41 Banbury Road and in January I897 a few pupils, daughters of Oxford dons, formed a nucleus of what was later to become Wychwood School. The little school flourished, pupils flocked in, more rooms in the house were added till, in 1898, the lease and later the ownership of 77 Banbury Road were acquired. Miss Batty's health improved marvellously and her wonderful power as a teacher began to be felt. 77 Banbury Road, a charming Regency house with a little garden stretching along North Parade, swarmed with school-children by day, and there were usually a few young women living there while reading for various examinations. The school soon overflowed and moved to Park Crescent in 1906 [shortly thereafter returning to Banbury Road]...To return to Margaret's academic career at Oxford: she held her teaching appointments under the Association for the Education of Women and in 1913 was appointed Tutor to the Oxford Home Students (later St. Anne's College) and she held this until she retired in 1936...MARGARET LUCY LEE was born on 14 July 1871, the eldest child of Thomas William Lee, son of Joseph Lee, of Redbrook House, Flint, and Margaret Anne, daughter of Rev. C. H. Lyon, of Glen Ogil, the seat for 500 years of the cadet branch of the Bowes-Lyons of Glamis Castle." 
  8. ↑ Johnson, John de Monins (1908). Religions of the lower culture. Section II. Religions of China and Japan. Section III. Religions of the Egyptians. Section IV. Religions of the Semites. https://books.google.com/books?id=A4QxAQAAMAAJ&q=miss+Batty+77+Banbury+Road+Oxford. Retrieved 13 February 2022. "Miss Batty, 77 Banbury Road, Oxford – page vi" 
  9. ↑ Kloester, J. (2013). Georgette Heyer: Biography of a Bestseller. Arrow Books. p. 42. ISBN 9780434020713. https://books.google.com/books?id=gsJTd-tROyYC&dq=miss+Batty%27s+School+for+the+daughters+of+Oxford+Dons&pg=PA42. Retrieved 12 April 2022. "Later, Carola and Joanna both went to Miss Batty's School for the daughters of Oxford dons (later called the Wychwood School) where they created a ..." 
  10. ↑ "Archives – St Anne's College, Oxford". St Anne's College, Oxford. https://www.st-annes.ox.ac.uk/life-here/library/archives/. "O.H.S. 1/1. Oxford Home-Students under AEW auspices. Reports 1879–1910 [...Miss G. [Gertrude] Middleton ...member of Society of Oxford Home Students from 1900–1902...[and] lived [during this time] at 77 Banbury Road, Oxford..." 
  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 11.2 "St Anne's History Brochure". st-annes.ox.ac.uk. http://www.st-annes.ox.ac.uk/fileadmin/documents/Publications/St._Annes_History_Brochure_David_Smith.pdf. ""Only in 1959 did the five women's colleges acquire full collegiate status so that their councils became governing bodies and they were, like the men's colleges, fully self-governing."" 
  12. ↑ "St Anne's College – What's In A Name?". St Anne’s College, Woodstock Road, Oxford, OX2 6HS, UK. https://www.st-annes.ox.ac.uk/life-here/library/blog/name/. "The Society of Oxford Home-Students had termly services at The University Church of St Mary the Virgin, one of the few opportunities when the whole student body could be gathered together each term. This link may have made the idea of Mary or Mary's mother, Anne, more appealing. Historically there had also been a chapel of St Anne at the University Church." 
  13. ↑ "St Anne's College, Oxford > Alumnæ & friends> Our alumnæ". http://www.st-annes.ox.ac.uk/alumnae/our-alumnae. 
  14. ↑ "Bevington Road Regeneration | St Anne's College, Oxford" (in en-GB). 2023-10-04. https://www.st-annes.ox.ac.uk/alumnae/bevington-road/. 
  15. ↑ "‘Last Night in The Bevs’ | St Anne's College, Oxford" (in en-GB). 2023-12-14. https://www.st-annes.ox.ac.uk/cpt_events/last-night-in-the-bevs/. 
  16. ↑ "Bevington Road Regeneration | St Anne's College, Oxford" (in en-GB). 2023-12-14. https://www.st-annes.ox.ac.uk/alumnae/bevington-road/. 
  17. ↑ "St Anne's College, Oxford > About the College > Library". http://www.st-annes.ox.ac.uk/about/library. 
  18. ↑ "St Anne's College". 2 November 2018. http://www.fletcherpriest.com/our-work/architecture/key-projects/st-annes-college. 


Colleges of the University of Oxford
Colleges:

All Souls • Balliol • Brasenose • Christ Church • Corpus Christi • Exeter • Green Templeton • Harris Manchester • Hertford • Jesus • Keble • Kellogg • Lady Margaret Hall • Linacre • Lincoln • Magdalen • Mansfield • Merton • New College • Nuffield • Oriel • Pembroke • The Queen's • Reuben • St Anne's • St Antony's • St Catherine's • St Cross • St Edmund Hall • St Hilda's • St Hugh's • St John's • St Peter's • Somerville • Trinity • University • Wadham • Wolfson • Worcester

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