Worcester College, Oxford Totally Explained

Everything about Worcester College Oxford totally explained

Worcester College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. Its predecessor had been an institution of learning since the late thirteenth century, even though the current college was founded only in the eighteenth century. As of 2006, Worcester had an estimated financial endowment of £32 million.

Buildings and grounds

The buildings are diverse – especially in the main quad, to the right an imposing eighteenth century building in the neo-classical style; and to the left a row of mediæval cottages which are among the oldest residential buildings in Oxford. These cottages are the most substantial surviving part of Gloucester College, Worcester's predecessor on the same site: this was a college for Benedictine monks, founded in 1283 and dissolved with the Dissolution of the Monasteries in about 1539. After a lapse of twenty years, the buildings of the old Gloucester College were used in the foundation of Gloucester Hall, in around 1560. In 1714, thanks to a fortunate benefaction from a Worcestershire baronet, Sir Thomas Cookes, Gloucester Hall was transformed into Worcester College. Even then, there were only sufficient funds to rebuild the Chapel, Hall and Library and the north side of the Front Quad, known as the Terrace. The designs were by Dr. George Clarke, who had consulted Nicholas Hawksmoor.
   In 1736, Clarke (now Sir George) generously left to the College his great collection of books and manuscripts. These included the papers of his father William Clarke (which are of crucial importance for the history of England during the period of the Commonwealth and Protectorate) and a large proportion of the surviving drawings of Inigo Jones.
   Owing to lack of funds, Worcester's eighteenth century building programme proceeded by fits and starts. The west end of the Terrace and the Provost's Lodgings were added in 1773-6 (architect: Henry Keene). The mediæval cottages were to have been replaced by a further classical range, but survived because money for this purpose was never available; the Hall and Chapel, by James Wyatt, were not completed until the 1770s.
   In more recent years several new residential blocks for undergraduates and graduates have been added, thanks in part to a series of generous benefactions. The latest of these include the Earl building, Sainsbury Building (which won the Civic Trust Award in 1984), Linbury Building, Canal Building and Ruskin Lane Building (for undergraduates), and the Franks Building (for graduates). A modern addition to Worcester College, the Canal Building sits next to the north entrance to the college and, as the name suggests, besides the Oxford Canal. It houses fifty students in large en-suite single rooms. The accommodation is usually reserved for third and fourth year undergraduates.

The Chapel

The College Chapel was built in the eighteeth century. Dr George Clarke, Henry Keene and James Wyatt were responsible for different stages of its lengthy construction (1720-91), owing to shortage of funds. The interior columns and pilasters, the dome and the delicate foliage plastering are all Wyatt's work. His classical interior was insufficiently emphatic for the tastes of militant Victorian churchmen, and between 1864 and 1866 the chapel was redecorated by William Burges. It is highly unusual and decorative; being predominantly pink, the pews are decorated with carved animals, including kangaroos and whales, and the walls are riotously colourful, and include frescoes of dodos and peacocks. Its stained glass windows were to have been designed by John Everett Millais, but Burges rejected his designs and entrusted the work to Henry Holiday. Oscar Wilde said of the Chapel, 'As a piece of simple decorative and beautiful art it's perfect, and the windows very artistic.'
The Chapel Choir is augmented by 12 boy choristers who attend Christ Church Cathedral Choir School

The Hall

Burges also started the redecoration of the Hall in 1877, but the work remained uncompleted at his death, and, in the early 1970s, Wyatt's designs were restored..

The Gardens

Although Worcester is near the centre of Oxford today, it was on the edge of the city in the eighteenth century. This has been an asset in the long run, since it has allowed the College to retain very extensive gardens (26 acres, including a lake). One important advantage of these gardens is that Worcester can provide playing fields for all the usual games within its own grounds.

Trivia

Oxford students know Worcester best for its Ball. Every three years a thousand ball-goers enjoy the Worcester College Commemoration Ball on College grounds. Held in June, it lasts from 6pm until 6 am and the dress code is white tie. Recent Worcester Balls have made sizeable donations to local and international charities.

The College grace is recited by a scholar, or student studying a field related to Literae Humaniores, before Formal Hall every night (except Saturdays, when there's no Formal Hall). The text is the same as that recited at Christ Church but, in comparison, always given in the long form:

"Nōs miserī hominēs et egēnī, prō cibīs quōs nōbis ad corporis subsidium benignē es largītus, tibi, Deus omnipotēns, Pater cælestis, grātiās reverenter agimus; simul obsecrantēs, ut iīs sobriē, modestē atque grātē ūtāmur. Īnsuper petimus, ut cibum angelōrum, vērum panem cælestem, verbum Deī æternem, Dominum nostrum Iēsum Christum, nōbis impertiāris; utque illō mēns nostra pascātur et per carnem et sanguinem eius fovēāmur, alāmur, et corrōborēmur. Amen."

In the mid-1960s, postgraduate philosophy student Daniel C. Dennett threw what he claims to have been the U.K.'s first frisbee, in the College's grounds. Frisbee games are now explicitly banned in the College gardens.

Fictional alumni of the college include Nick Guest from The Line of Beauty by Alan Hollinghurst.

Notable former students

Peter Clift

John de Feckenham (Gloucester College)

John Hood, Vice-Chancellor, University of Oxford

Elena Kagan, Dean of Harvard Law School

Toby Litt

Richard Lovelace (Gloucester Hall)

John Cecil Masterman

Glyn Maxwell

Sir William Neil McKie, former Organist of Westminster Abbey

Sir Roy Meadow, discredited former paediatrician

Sir Alastair Morton

Tim, Baron Razzall Politician (Lib Dem)

John Sainsbury

Anne-Marie Slaughter, Dean of the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University

Laura Solon, winner of the 2005 Perrier Comedy Award at the Edinburgh Festival

Victoria "Plum" Sykes

Woodrow Wyatt � See also .

Further Information

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