Christ Church Overview

College. “The House” has Oxford’s grandest quad and its most distinguished students, counting 13 past prime ministers among its alumni. Charles I made Christ Church his headquarters for three and a half years during the Civil Wars and escaped dressed as a servant when the city was besieged. Lewis Carroll first met Alice, the dean’s daughter, here. The dining hall and Tom Quad serve as shooting locations for Harry Potter films. If you visit in June, be respectful of undergrads prepping for exams as you navigate the narrow strip open to tourists. Through an archway, to your left as you face the cathedral, lie Peckwater Quad and the most elegant Palladian building in Oxford. Look for rowing standings chalked on the walls and for the beautiful exterior of Christ Church’s library. Spreading east and south from the main entrance, Christ Church Meadow compensates for Oxford’s lack of “backs” (the riverside gardens in Cambridge). The meadows are beautiful and afford great views of Christ Church College for those who don’t want to pay to go inside. (Down St. Aldates from Carfax. ☎01865 286 573; www.chch.ox.ac.uk. Open M-F 10:15am-11:45am and 2:15-4:30pm, Sa-Su 2:15-4:30pm. Last entry 4pm. Dining hall open 10:30am-noon and 2:30-4:30pm. Chapel services M-F 6pm; Su 8, 10, 11:15am, 6pm. £6, concessions £4.50.)

Christ Church Chapel. The only church in England to serve as both a cathedral and college chapel, Christ Church Chapel was founded in AD 730 by Oxford’s patron saint, St. Frideswide, who built a nunnery here in honor of two miracles: the blinding of her persistent suitor and his subsequent recovery. A stained-glass window (c. 1320) contains a rare panel depicting St. Thomas Becket, archbishop of Canterbury, kneeling moments before his death. Many clergy are buried here, but the most aesthetically interesting tomb is the sculpture of a dead knight (John de Nowers, who died in 1386). He was 6’6’’ tall, a giant in his day. Look for the floating toilet in the bottom right of a window showing St. Frideswide’s death and the White Rabbit fretting in the windows in the hall.

Tom Quad. The site of undergraduate lily-pond dunking, Tom Quad adjoins the chapel grounds. The quad takes its name from Great Tom, the seven-ton bell, that has rung 101 (the original number of students) times at 9:05pm (the original undergraduate curfew) every evening since 1682. The bell rings at 9:05pm because, technically, Oxford should be 5min. past Greenwich Mean Time. Nearby, the college hall displays portraits of some of Christ Church’s famous alums—Sir Philip Sidney, William Penn, John Locke, and a bored-looking W.H. Auden—in a corner by the kitchen.

Christ Church Picture Gallery. Generous alumni gifts have established a small but noteworthy collection of works by Tintoretto, Vermeer, and Leonardo da Vinci, among others. (In the Canterbury quad. Entrances on Oriel Sq. and at Canterbury Gate; visitors to the gallery should enter through Canterbury Gate. ☎01865 276 172; www.chch.ox.ac.uk/gallery. Open M-Sa 10:30am-5pm, Su 2-5pm. Tours M 2:30pm. £3, concessions £2.)