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The Great Britain Guide

Historic houses · West Midlands

Keble College

Also known as: Coleg Keble, Rhydychen

♿ Wheelchair: limited

Keble College — a Grade I-listed historic house in england-west-midlands, United Kingdom.

Towards the Chapel - geograph.org.uk - 4404922

DS Pugh — CC BY-SA 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons licence

Plan your visit

Typical visit
1 h–2 h
  • Family-friendly
  • Limited wheelchair access

About

Keble College is a Grade I-listed building in england-west-midlands, United Kingdom. Grade I status is conferred by Historic England (or Cadw, Historic Environment Scotland or NIEA equivalents) on buildings of exceptional national interest. See the linked Wikipedia article for full historical and architectural details.

Photo gallery

From the Wikipedia article

Keble College () is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. Its main buildings are on Parks Road, opposite the University Museum and the University Parks. The college is bordered to the north by Keble Road, to the south by Museum Road, and to the west by Blackhall Road. Keble was established in 1870, having been built as a monument to John Keble, who had been a leading member of the Oxford Movement which sought to stress the catholic nature of the Church of England. Consequently, the college's original teaching focus was primarily theological, although the college now offers a broad range of subjects, reflecting the diversity of degrees offered across the wider university. In the period after the Second World War, the trends were towards scientific courses (proximity to the university science area east of the University Museum influenced this). As originally constituted, it was for men only and the fellows were mostly bachelors resident in the college. Like many of Oxford's men's colleges, Keble admitted its first mixed-sex cohort in 1979. Keble remains distinctive for its once-controversial neo-gothic red-brick buildings designed by William Butterfield. The buildings are also notable for breaking from Oxbridge tradition by arranging rooms along corridors rather than around staircases, in order that the scouts could supervise the comings and goings of visitors (Girton College, Cambridge, similarly breaks this tradition). Keble is one of the largest colleges of the University of Oxford, with 465 undergraduates and 550 graduate students as of 2024. Keble's sister college at the University of Cambridge is Selwyn College.

Excerpt from Wikipedia under CC BY-SA 4.0. See the source article linked in Sources below.

Background

History

, a leading member of the Oxford Movement, after whom the college is named]] The best-known of Keble's Victorian founders was Edward Pusey, after whom the Pusey quad and Pusey room are named. The college first opened in 1870, taking in thirty students, whilst the chapel was opened on St Mark's Day 1876. Accordingly, the college continues to celebrate St Mark's Day each year. Butterfield produced a notable example of Victorian Gothic architecture, among his few secular buildings, which Pevsner characterised as "actively ugly", and which, according to Charles Eastlake, defied criticism. The social historian G. M. Trevelyan expressed the then commonly held, and highly dismissive, view: "the…

Architecture

The main site of Keble contains five quads: Liddon (the largest, named after Henry Parry Liddon), Pusey (named after Edward Bouverie Pusey), Hayward (named after Charles Hayward), De Breyne (named after Andre de Breyne) and Newman (named after John Henry Newman).

Visiting

Keble, under snow, appears as Baidley College in an episode of the television detective show Endeavour, with the young Morse investigating the murder of a don.

Sourced from Wikipedia under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Coordinates
51.7589, -1.2577
County
Oxfordshire
District
Oxford
Parish
Oxford, unparished area
Postcode
OX1 3PG
Parliamentary constituency
Oxford West and Abingdon
Established
1870
Official site
web.archive.org

Sources

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Frequently asked questions

Where is Keble College?
Keble College is in Oxfordshire, the West Midlands, United Kingdom (postcode OX1 3PG), in the parish of Oxford, unparished area.
When was Keble College built?
Built or established in 1870.
Is Keble College a listed building?
Keble College is officially recognised as Grade I listed.
How do I get to Keble College?
Drivers can navigate to postcode OX1 3PG. It sits within the Oxford West and Abingdon parliamentary constituency.