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The Queen's College is a constituent college of the University of Oxford, England. The college was founded in 1341 by Robert de Eglesfield in honour of Philippa of Hainault, queen of England. It is distinguished by its predominantly neoclassical architecture, primarily dating from the 18th century.
As of 2022, the college had an endowment of £327.8 million making it the fifth-wealthiest Oxford college (after Christ Church, Magdalen, St. John's, and All Souls).
The college was founded in 1341 as "Hall of the Queen's scholars of Oxford" by Robert de Eglesfield (d'Eglesfield), chaplain to the then queen consort Philippa of Hainault, after whom the hall was named. Robert's aim was to provide clergymen for his native Cumberland and where he lived in Westmorland (both part of modern Cumbria). In addition, the college was to provide charity for the poor. The college's coat of arms is that of the founder; it differs slightly from his family's coat of arms, which did not include the gold star on the breast of the first eagle. The current coat of arms was adopted by d'Eglesfield because he was unable to use his family's arms, being the younger son. D'Eglesfield had grand plans for the college, with a provost, 12 fellows studying theology, up to 13 chaplains, and 72 poor boys. However, the college did not have the funding to support such numbers, and initially had just two fellows.
The college gained land and patronage in the mid-15th century, giving it a good endowment and allowing it to expand to 10 fellows by the end of the century. By 1500, the college had started to take paying undergraduates, typically sons of the gentry and middle class, who paid the fellows for teaching. There were 14 of these in 1535; by 1612, this had risen to 194. The college added lectureships in Greek and philosophy. Provost Henry Robinson obtained the Queen's College, Oxford Act 1584 (27 Eliz. 1. c. 2 Pr.), an act of Parliament incorporating the college as "The Queen's College" in 1585, so Robinson is known as the second founder.
Following the new foundation, the college had a good reputation and flourished until the 1750s. Joseph Williamson, who had been admitted as a poor boy and went on to become a fellow, rose to Secretary of State and amassed a fortune. He funded a new range on Queen's Lane built in 1671–72. Following a bequest of books from Thomas Barlow, a new library was built between 1693 and 1696 by master builder John Townesend. A further bequest from Williamson of £6,000, along with purchase of the buildings along the High Street, allowed a new front quad to be built and for the remaining medieval buildings to be replaced. This was completed by 1759 by John's son William Townesend. The college gained a large number of benefactions during this time, which helped to pay for the buildings and bring in more scholars from other, mostly northern, towns.
From the 1750s, as with other Oxford colleges, standards dropped. The Oxford commission of 1850–1859 revised the statutes and removed the northern preference for fellows and most of the students. Over the coming years, requirements for fellows to be unmarried were relaxed, the number of fellows required to have taken orders and studied theology was reduced, and the Universities Tests Act 1871 allowed non-conformists and Catholics.
Like many of Oxford's colleges, Queen's admitted its first mixed-sex cohort in 1979, after more than six centuries as an institution for men only.
The college is named for its first patroness, Queen Philippa. Established in January 1341 'under the name of the Hall of the Queen's scholars of Oxford' (sub nomine aule scholarium Regine de Oxon), the college was subsequently called the 'Queen's Hall', 'Queenhall' and 'Queen's College'. The Queen's College, Oxford Act 1584 (27 Eliz. 1. c. 2 Pr.) sought to end this confusion by providing that it should be called by the one name "the Queen's College";. The full name of the college, as indicated in its annual reports, is The Provost and Scholars of The Queen's College in the University of Oxford. Queens' College in Cambridge positions its apostrophe differently and has no article, as it was named for multiple queens (Margaret of Anjou and Elizabeth Woodville).
In April 2012, as part of the celebrations of the Diamond Jubilee of Elizabeth II, a series of commemorative stamps was released featuring A-Z pictures of famous British landmarks. The Queen's College's front quad was used on the Q stamp, alongside other landmarks such as the Angel of the North on A and the Old Bailey on O.
One of the most famous feasts of the college is the Boar's Head Gaudy, which originally was the Christmas dinner for members of the college who were unable to return home to the north of England over the Christmas break between terms, but is now a feast for old members of the College on the Saturday before Christmas.
The main entrance on the High Street leads to the front quad, which was built between 1709 and 1759. There are symmetrical ranges on the east and west sides, while at the back of the quad is a building containing the chapel and the hall. The architect Nicholas Hawksmoor, a leading figure of the English Baroque style, provided a number of designs that were not used directly but that heavily influenced the final design. In the cupola above the college entrance is a statue of the British queen Caroline of Ansbach by the sculptor Henry Cheere; the legend 'Carolina Regina, 12 November 1733' may be found marking the laying of the foundation stone of the screen wall, which is visible from the High Street.
A second and older quad lies to the north of the hall and chapel. The west side consists of the library. The east side is the Williamson building, which was originally built to a design by the architect Christopher Wren, known for his work in the English Baroque style, but has been largely rebuilt since then.
The chapel is noted for its Frobenius organ in the west gallery. It was installed in 1965, replacing a Rushworth and Dreaper organ from 1931. The earliest mention of an organ is 1826. The Chapel Choir has been described as "Oxford's finest mixed-voice choir" and continues to perform termly concerts, recent examples of which include Handel's Messiah and Bach's St John Passion. The chapel has stood virtually unchanged since it was consecrated by the Archbishop of York in 1719.
Holy Communion is celebrated every Sunday morning and at other times, and is open to all communicant members of any Christian church or denomination. The Sunday evening service takes the traditional form of Choral Evensong, which is also held on Wednesday and Friday evenings during term. Morning and evening prayer is said daily, and at other times some like to use the stillness for their own prayer. Baptisms, confirmations, and weddings are also conducted for members or former members of the college.
The Upper Library has been a focal point for the college ever since its construction at the end of the 17th century. The ceiling plasterwork, its most outstanding feature, was designed by James Hands, whilst the library itself was built by John Townsend. The designer remains unknown, although a likely candidate is Henry Aldrich, who was Bishop of Oxford and Dean of Christ Church, as well as chief communicator between Christopher Wren and the college whilst the Back Quad was being designed. Unlike many other similar rooms in Oxford libraries, the Upper Library remains as a silent reading room for students open during staffed hours.
On display in the middle of the library are two eighteenth century papier-mâché Senex globes and an orrery from the same period. John Senex was the foremost globe maker of the eighteenth century, and also crafted the miniature globe featured in the orrery. The globes are now found in cases that were designed and fitted by Welsh furniture designer Bernard Allen in 2007, after being removed from the library for a period of time in 2002 for structural repair and restoration by renowned English globe conservator Sylvia Sumira.
The Benjamin Cole orrery was a gift to the college in 1763 from a Group of Gentleman Commoners of the college, recorded in two entries in the Benefactors' Book, as well as on an inscription in the lunar calendar scale. The instrument is made of brass, steel, and wood, contained within a wooden case and resting on a mahogany stand with a glazed cover. Johnathan Betts, in an Excerpt from A report following the servicing and inspection of The Queen's College Grand Orrery in 2016, describes the instrument as standing
on a fine mahogany table with six finely carved cabriole legs, the whole covered with a multi-panelled protective glass shade which can be locked securely onto the table, preventing access to the orrery.
In the same article, Betts illustrates the orrery,
fitted in a mahogany twelve-sided case, with lacquered brass mounts and surmounted, on a brass pillared gallery, with a large lacquered brass hemispherical armillary structure. The mechanical orrery itself incorporates within its compass the solar system out to Mars, including the Earth and Moon, with additional mountings fixed on the outside of the case for attaching static models of Jupiter and Saturn.
The turning of the orrery is a traditional event at Queen's, done by hand only once every few years or on special occasions. Only two people are permitted to turn the orrery: the Patroness of the college, a position most recently occupied by The Queen Mother, and the Sedleian Professor of Natural Philosophy, a Fellow of Queen's. This event most recently took place on 4 February 2020, during the Hilary term, with professor Jonathan Keating as the honorary orrery-turner.
The open cloister below the Upper Library was enclosed in the 19th century to form the Lower Library, which now houses the bulk of the lending collection. The lending collection consists of around 50,000 with an additional 70,000 items in the special collections available by appointment. In April 2017 the New Library opened beneath the Provost's Garden, with an official opening by Old Member Rowan Atkinson taking place in November of the same year.
Queen's is able to provide accommodation for all of its undergraduates, who are divided between the college's main buildings and annexes nearby. Adjacent to college is Carrodus Quad, located just across Queen's Lane. It has been completely refurbished, and now has approximately 80 en-suite rooms for first-year students, as well as a few second- and third-/final-year students with access requirements. The building also houses a conference room, one of the college's music practice rooms (the other one being located in the Back Quad of the main college), and the college gym. The college also owns the Cardo Building opposite the Oxford University Sports centre on Iffley Road (where Roger Bannister ran the first ever four-minute mile in 1954). This building is home to a mixture of second and third years, and features a common room, breakfast room and the college's two squash courts. Near the Cardo Building is the James Street Building, the smallest of the annexes with twelve rooms.
The Florey Building in St Clement's, designed by James Stirling and named after former Queen's Provost and Nobel Prize winner Howard Florey, is a former annex that housed most of the college's first years until 2018, when it was mothballed following complications that arose in attempts to refurbish the building. It contains nearly 80 rooms; those on the top floor have a mezzanine level. At one end of the building on the ground floor, there is a common room and a breakfast room. Following the closure of the Florey Building in 2018, the former post-graduate annex, St Aldate's House, became the largest undergraduate annex at Queen's, with three floors, 90 en suite rooms, and kitchens shared with up to nine other students. The annex is situated down St Aldate's directly opposite Christ Church Meadows, near Folly Bridge.
Text from the Wikipedia article “The Queen's College, Oxford”, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.