St John's College, Oxford

St John's College Latin: Collegium Sancti Johannis Baptistae UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD
Oxford, Oxfordshire
Canterbury Quad
President:
Website:	www.sjc.ox.ac.uk
Location
Grid reference:	SP51270664
Location:	51°45’22"N, 1°15’31"W

St John's College is a constituent college of the University of Oxford. Founded as a men's college in 1555, it has been coeducational since 1979. Its founder, Sir Thomas White, intended to provide a source of educated Roman Catholic clerics to support the Counter-Reformation under Queen Mary I. After 'Bloody Mary' died however, the Protestantism swiftly began to assert itself.

The wealthiest college in Oxford, St John's has assets worth over of £790 million as of 2022, largely due to nineteenth-century suburban development of land in the city of Oxford of which it is the ground landlord.

The college occupies a site on St Giles' and has a student body of some 390 undergraduates and 250 postgraduates. There are over 100 academic staff, and a like number of other staff. In 2018 St John's topped the Norrington Table, the annual ranking of Oxford colleges' final results, and in 2021, St John's ranked second with a score of 79.8.

History

On 1 May 1555, Sir Thomas White, lately Lord Mayor of London, obtained a Royal Patent of Foundation to create a charitable institution for the education of students within the University of Oxford. White, a Roman Catholic, originally intended St John's to provide a source of educated Roman Catholic clerics to support the Counter-Reformation under Queen Mary.

White acquired buildings on the east side of St Giles', north of Balliol and Trinity Colleges, which had belonged to the former College of St Bernard, a monastery and house of study of the Cistercian order that had been founded in 1437 and closed in 1540 during the dissolution of the monasteries. Initially the new St John's College was rather small and not well endowed financially.

During the reign of Elizabeth I the fellows lectured in rhetoric, Greek, and dialectic, but not directly in theology. However, St John's initially had a strong focus on the creation of a proficient and educated priesthood.

The college was closely linked for many centuries to other eductional foundations created or endowed by Thomas White, including the Merchant Taylors' School. However it became a more open society in the later 19th century. (Closed scholarships for students from the Merchant Taylors' School, however, persisted until the late 20th century. As well as these, scholarships existed for students from Christ's Hospital, two for Coventry School, two for Bristol Grammar School, two for Reading School and one for Tonbridge School.)

Female students were first admitted in 1979, after over four centuries of the college as an institution for men only.

Although primarily a producer of Anglican clergymen in the earlier periods of its history, St John's also gained a reputation for degrees in law, medicine and PPE (Philosophy, Politics and Economics).

Endowments

The endowments which St John's was given at its foundation, and during the twenty or so years afterward, served it very well and in the second half of the nineteenth century it benefited, as ground landlord, from the suburban development of the city of Oxford and was unusual among colleges for the size and extent of its property within the city. The patronage of the parish of St Giles was included in the endowment of the college by Thomas White. Vicars of St Giles were formerly either fellows of the college, or ex-fellows who were granted the living on marriage (when Oxford fellows were required to be unmarried). The college retains the right to present candidates for the benefice to the bishop. Today St John's maintains the largest endowment of the Oxford colleges, for example owning the Oxford Playhouse building and the Millwall F.C. training ground.

Buildings

The college is situated on a single 13½-acre site. Most of the college buildings are organised around seven quadrangles (quads).

Front Quadrangle

The Front Quad

The Front Quadrangle mainly consists of buildings built for the Cistercian St Bernard's College. Construction started in 1437, though when the site passed to the crown in 1540, due to the dissolution of the monasteries, much of the exterior was as it is now, but the Eastern range was incomplete. Christ Church took control of the site in 1546 and Thomas White acquired it in 1554. He made major alterations to create the current college hall, and designated the Northern part of the Eastern range as the lodging of the president, for which it is still used today. Front Quad was gravelled until the college's 400th anniversary when the current circular lawn and paving were laid out.

The turret clock, made by John Knibb, dates from 1690. The main tower above the Porters' Lodge features a statue of John the Baptist by Eric Gill.

Chapel

The Chapel

The chapel was built in 1530, dedicated to St Bernard of Clairvaux. It was re-dedicated to St John the Baptist in 1557. The Baylie chapel in the north-east corner was added 1662–69 and refitted in 1949. In 1840 the interior of the chapel's underwent major changes which created the gothic revival pews, roof, wall arcading and west screen. Thomas White, William Laud and William Juxon are buried beneath the chapel. All three were presidents of the college, with the latter two also holding the office of Archbishop of Canterbury. To the south of the chancel is a hidden pew directly accessible from the President's Lodgings, which historically allowed the only woman in college, the president's wife, to worship without distracting college members.

Choral services have been sung in the chapel since 1618. Orlando Gibbons's famous anthem "This Is the Record of John" was written at the college's request, and presumably received its first performance here. The college in 1620 commissioned the anthem As they departed from Michael East.

Canterbury Quadrangle

This quad is the first example of Italian Renaissance architecture in Oxford. It was substantially commissioned by Archbishop Laud and completed in 1636.

The college library is here, consisting of four connected parts: The Old Library (south side, built 1596–1598), The Laudian Library (built 1631–1635 above the eastern colonnade, overlooking the garden), The Paddy Room (1971–77) and the new Library and Study Centre, designed by Wright & Wright Architects and opened in 2019. Until moving to the Kendrew Quadrangle in 2010, the Holdsworth Law Library was situated in the neighbouring southwest corner of Canterbury Quadrangle. The college holds Robert Graves' Working Library and in 1936 it acquired the 'A. E. Housman Classics Library', consisting of about 300 books and pamphlets containing hand-written notes by Housman in margins and on loose leaves.

The Holmes Building is a 1794 south spur off the Canterbury Quad, containing fellows' rooms.

North Quadrangle

The North Quadrangle was not designed as a whole, but is the irregular product of a series of buildings constructed since the college's foundation.

In 1612 the college’s cook, Thomas Clarke, was given permission to build a college kitchen, with residential rooms above. The college bought this building, just north of the hall, from Clarke in 1620 and expanded it during 1642–1643 to produce the current Cook's Building.

In 1676 the first part of today's Senior Common Room was constructed, just north of the chapel. Its ceiling, completed in 1742, features the craftsmanship of Thomas Roberts, who also worked on the Radcliffe Camera and the Codrington Library. Various additions and renovations took place in 1826, 1900, 1936 and 2004–2005. The latest renovation and extension to the Grade I listed building was by MJP Architects and received two awards in 1996, the Design Partnership Award from the National Association of Shopfitters, and the other from the Royal Institute of British Architects.

In 1742 property was bought from Exeter College and between 1794 and 1880 was used for college purposes, known as the Wood Buildings. It was replaced when in 1880 the construction of today's St Giles' range began. What is today thought of as a single building was constructed as several distinct sections. The first part (1880–1881) consisted of the gate tower and the rooms between it and Cook's building to the south. The second part to be constructed (1899–1900) forms the northern half of the St Giles' range. Finally the Rawlinson Building (1909) formed the northern side of the quadrangle. More rooms were added by Edward Maufe in 1933.

With completion of the "Beehive" (1958–1960), made up of irregular hexagonal rooms, the quadrangle took on its current appearance. The Beehive was designed by Michael Powers of the Architects' Co-Partnership and is clad in Portland stone. This Eastern part of the quadrangle previously held the old Fellows' Stables.

Dolphin Quadrangle

Three houses at 2–4 St Giles' formed the Dolphin Inn. When demolished in 1881 the houses were known as the South Buildings, and used as college accommodation. In 1947–48 the college constructed, at a cost of £43,216, the neo-Georgian Dolphin Quadrangle on the site. It was designed by Edward Maufe. There was a shortage of construction materials in the immediate aftermath of the Second World War, but the college built the new quadrangle with its own timber, stored in Bagley Wood, still owned by the college.

Pictures

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

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  Canterbury Quad

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  Gate from gardens

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  Garden Party in the gardens

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  College gardens

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  1896 drawing

Outside links

• St John's College
• St John's College MCR
• St John's College JCR
• Virtual Tour of St. John's College