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Keble College, Oxford
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Keble College, Oxford
Keble College (/ˈkiːbəl/) 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.
The best-known of Keble's Victorian founders was Edward Pusey, after whom the Pusey quad and Pusey room are named. The college itself is named after John Keble, one of Pusey's colleagues in the Oxford Movement, who died four years before the college's foundation in 1870. It was decided immediately after Keble's funeral that his memorial would be a new Oxford college bearing his name. The chosen architect was William Butterfield. Two years later, in 1868, the foundation stone was laid by the Archbishop of Canterbury on St Mark's Day (25 April, John Keble's birthday). 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 monstrosities of architecture erected by order of the dons of Oxford and Cambridge colleges in the days of William Butterfield and Alfred Waterhouse give daily pain to posterity." Sir Kenneth Clark recalled that during his Oxford years it was generally believed in Oxford not only that Keble College was "the ugliest building in the world" but that its architect was John Ruskin, author of The Stones of Venice. The college is built of red, blue, and white bricks; the main structure is of red brick, with white and blue patterned banding. The builders were Parnell & Son of Rugby.[citation needed]
On its construction, Keble was not always admired within the university. Undergraduates at St John's College started the Destroy Keble Society, which aimed to dismantle the college brick by brick.
An apocryphal story claims that a French visitor, on first sight of the college exclaimed C'est magnifique mais ce n'est pas la gare? ("It is magnificent but is it not the railway station?"). This is a play on Field Marshal Pierre Bosquet's memorable line, referring to the Charge of the Light Brigade, C'est magnifique, mais ce n'est pas la guerre ("It is magnificent, but it is not war"). This story may have been borrowed from Arthur Wing Pinero's identical quip said to have been made at the opening ceremony for the Royal Courts of Justice in London.[citation needed]
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Keble College, Oxford
Keble College (/ˈkiːbəl/) 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.
The best-known of Keble's Victorian founders was Edward Pusey, after whom the Pusey quad and Pusey room are named. The college itself is named after John Keble, one of Pusey's colleagues in the Oxford Movement, who died four years before the college's foundation in 1870. It was decided immediately after Keble's funeral that his memorial would be a new Oxford college bearing his name. The chosen architect was William Butterfield. Two years later, in 1868, the foundation stone was laid by the Archbishop of Canterbury on St Mark's Day (25 April, John Keble's birthday). 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 monstrosities of architecture erected by order of the dons of Oxford and Cambridge colleges in the days of William Butterfield and Alfred Waterhouse give daily pain to posterity." Sir Kenneth Clark recalled that during his Oxford years it was generally believed in Oxford not only that Keble College was "the ugliest building in the world" but that its architect was John Ruskin, author of The Stones of Venice. The college is built of red, blue, and white bricks; the main structure is of red brick, with white and blue patterned banding. The builders were Parnell & Son of Rugby.[citation needed]
On its construction, Keble was not always admired within the university. Undergraduates at St John's College started the Destroy Keble Society, which aimed to dismantle the college brick by brick.
An apocryphal story claims that a French visitor, on first sight of the college exclaimed C'est magnifique mais ce n'est pas la gare? ("It is magnificent but is it not the railway station?"). This is a play on Field Marshal Pierre Bosquet's memorable line, referring to the Charge of the Light Brigade, C'est magnifique, mais ce n'est pas la guerre ("It is magnificent, but it is not war"). This story may have been borrowed from Arthur Wing Pinero's identical quip said to have been made at the opening ceremony for the Royal Courts of Justice in London.[citation needed]
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