Radcliffe Square

The Radcliffe Camera (colloquially known as the "Rad Cam" or "The Camera"; from Latin camera, meaning 'room') is a building of the University of Oxford, England, designed by James Gibbs in neo-classical style and built in 1737–49 to house the Radcliffe Science Library. It is sited to the south of the Old Bodleian, north of the Church of St Mary the Virgin, and between Brasenose College to the west and All Souls College to the east. The Radcliffe Camera's circularity, its position in the heart of Oxford, and its separation from other buildings make it the focal point of the University of Oxford, and as such it is almost always included in shorthand visual representations of the university. The Radcliffe Camera is not open to the public. The library's construction and maintenance was funded from the estate of John Radcliffe, a physician who left £40,000 upon his death in 1714. According to the terms of his will, construction only began in 1737, although the intervening period saw the complex purchase of the site. The exterior was complete in 1747 and the interior finished by 1748, although the library's opening was delayed until 13 April 1749. Upon its completion, Francis Wise was appointed as its first librarian. Until 1810, the library housed books covering a wide range of subjects, but under George Williams it narrowed its focus to the sciences. Williams brought the library from a state of neglect up to date, although by 1850 the Radcliffe Library still lagged behind the Bodleian. It was at this point that Henry Wentworth Acland, then librarian, laid out plans for the Radcliffe Library building to merge with the university and the library's collection of books to be moved to the newly constructed Radcliffe Science Library, which were accepted by the library's trustees and the university. It was at this point that the building became known as the Radcliffe Camera, serving as a reading room for the Bodleian.

The Gladstone Link is an underground library of the University of Oxford that connects the Bodleian Library with the Radcliffe Camera. It was developed and opened to readers on 5 July 2011. It is named after former Prime Minister William Gladstone, who had also studied at Christ Church. It is more modern than traditional Oxford Libraries, many of which are members of the Bodleian Libraries.

The Chapel of Brasenose College, Oxford, dedicated to St Hugh and St Chad, was built during the seventeenth century, during Brasenose's second wave of building started under the Principalship of Samuel Radcliffe. It is believed to have replaced an earlier chapel where the Senior Common Room now is, and includes items of silverware from around the date of foundation. The chapel is in a mixture of architectural styles – Gothic, neoclassical, and baroque – and has not proven uncontroversial for this reason. The current chaplain is The Reverend David Sheen.Radcliffe having failed to start work during his lifetime, his will set aside money and instructions for the construction of the new chapel on the south side of the college. For this purpose materials were taken from college properties – particularly from St Mary's College, which provided the hammerbeam roof and other materials for the project. The chapel and library cost together £4,000 at a time when college income was £600 a year. Disputes over the will and other problems meant that work on the construction did not begin until 1656 (eight years after Radcliffe's death), and was managed by the college bursar. An "overseer" called John Jackson took control of the project, and is believed to be the chapel's primary designer. The chapel was consecrated in 1666, and must have been almost complete at that date. Various alterations were made to the chapel after completion. Although repairs were undertaken in the meantime, the interior of the chapel was renovated (having fallen into a poor state) in 1819, and the exterior beginning in 1841. In 1892–3 a new organ was purchased and fitted, paid for by the then Principal Charles Buller Heberden; the current organ was installed in 1973, and rebuilt in 2002–3.

The University Church of St Mary the Virgin (St Mary's or SMV for short) is an English church in Oxford situated on the north side of the High Street. It is the centre from which the University of Oxford grew and its parish consists almost exclusively of university and college buildings.

The Bodleian Library () is the main research library of the University of Oxford, and is one of the oldest libraries in Europe. It derives its name from its founder, Sir Thomas Bodley. With over 13 million printed items, it is the second-largest library in Britain after the British Library. Under the Legal Deposit Libraries Act 2003, it is one of six legal deposit libraries for works published in the United Kingdom, and under Irish law it is entitled to request a copy of each book published in the Republic of Ireland. Known to Oxford scholars as "Bodley" or "the Bod", it operates principally as a reference library and, in general, documents may not be removed from the reading rooms. In 2000, a number of libraries within the University of Oxford were brought together for administrative purposes under the aegis of what was initially known as Oxford University Library Services (OULS), and since 2010 as the Bodleian Libraries, of which the Bodleian Library is the largest component. All colleges of the University of Oxford have their own libraries, which in a number of cases were established well before the foundation of the Bodleian, and all of which remain entirely independent of the Bodleian. They do, however, participate in SOLO (Search Oxford Libraries Online), the Bodleian Libraries' online union catalogue, except for University College, which has an independent catalogue. Much of the library's archives were digitized and put online for public access in 2015.

Brasenose College (BNC) is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. It began as Brasenose Hall in the 13th century, before being founded as a college in 1509. The library and chapel were added in the mid-17th century and the new quadrangle in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. For 2020–21, Brasenose placed 4th in the Norrington Table (an unofficial measure of performance in undergraduate degree examinations). In a recent Oxford Barometer Survey, Brasenose's undergraduates registered 98% overall satisfaction. In recent years, around 80% of the UK undergraduate intake have been from state schools.Brasenose is home to one of the oldest rowing clubs in the world, Brasenose College Boat Club.

All Souls College Library, known until 2020 as the Codrington Library, is an academic library in the city of Oxford, England. It is the library of All Souls College, a graduate constituent college of the University of Oxford. The library in its current form was endowed by Christopher Codrington (1668–1710), a fellow of the college who amassed his fortune through his sugar plantation in the West Indies which was worked by enslaved people of African descent. Codrington bequeathed books worth £6,000, in addition to £10,000 in currency (the equivalent of approximately £1.2 million in modern terms). The library, designed by Nicholas Hawksmoor, begun in 1716, was completed in 1751 and has been in continuous use by scholars since then. It is Grade I listed on the National Heritage List for England.The modern collection comprises some 185,000 items, about a third of which were produced before 1800. The library's collections are particularly strong in Law, European History, Ecclesiastical History, Military History, and Classics. There is an expanding collection devoted to sociological topics and the History of Science. Unusually for an Oxford college library, access to the Codrington is open to all members of the university (subject to registration). The library contains a significant collection of manuscripts and early printed books, and attracts scholars from around the world. The first woman to be admitted as a reader to the library was Cornelia Sorabji from Somerville College, at the invitation of Sir William Anson, 3rd Baronet in 1890.In November 2020, the college took the decision to stop referring to the library as the Codrington Library, as part of a set of "steps to address the problematic nature of the Codrington legacy", which derives from exploitation of slave plantations.

The Old Bank Hotel is a hotel located in the historic university city of Oxford, England. It is located on the south side of Oxford's High Street, where it was the first hotel in 135 years to be created in the city centre.

Catte Street is a historic street in central Oxford, England.

All Souls College (official name: College of the Souls of All the Faithful Departed) is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. Unique to All Souls, all of its members automatically become fellows (i.e., full members of the college's governing body). It has no undergraduate members, but each year, recent graduate and postgraduate students at Oxford are eligible to apply for a small number of examination fellowships through a competitive examination (once described as "the hardest exam in the world") and, for those shortlisted after the examinations, an interview.The college entrance is on the north side of High Street, whilst it has a long frontage onto Radcliffe Square. To its east is the Queen's College, whilst Hertford College is to the north of All Souls. The current warden (head of the college) is Sir John Vickers, a graduate of Oriel College, Oxford.

Hertford College ( HART-fərd), previously known as Magdalen Hall, is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. It is located on Catte Street in the centre of Oxford, directly opposite the main gate to the Bodleian Library. The college is known for its iconic bridge, the Bridge of Sighs. There are around 600 students at the college at any one time, comprising undergraduates, graduates and visiting students from overseas. The first foundation on the Hertford site began in the 1280s as Hart Hall and became a college in 1740 but was dissolved in 1816. In 1820, the site was taken over by Magdalen Hall, which had emerged around 1490 on a site adjacent to Magdalen College. In 1874, Magdalen Hall was incorporated as a college, reviving the name Hertford College. In 1974, Hertford was part of the first group of all-male Oxford colleges to admit women.Alumni of the college's predecessor institutions include William Tyndale, John Donne, Thomas Hobbes, and Jonathan Swift. More recently, former students have included author Evelyn Waugh, the first female Home Secretary Jacqui Smith, the civil servants Jeremy Heywood and Olly Robbins, and the newsreaders and reporters Fiona Bruce, Carrie Gracie, Krishnan Guru-Murthy, and Natasha Kaplinsky. U.S. justice Byron White attended the college on a Rhodes scholarship but left to serve in World War II.

Sanders of Oxford is an antique print shop situated on the High Street of the city of Oxford, England. Although stores trading in prints were once common in the country, there are now only a handful left, Sanders being one of the largest and longest running outside London. The building, Salutation House, has traded in books and prints since at least the 1840s, when it was registered as a 'Bookseller and Auctioneer & appraiser' by its then proprietor Charles Richards. In the 16th and 17th centuries the building housed the Saluation Inn and Thomas Wood was the proprietor of the Inn. Sanders possesses a token issued by Wood in 1652. The design shows a racket, a reference to the real tennis court at Oriel College. The tavern later became a coffee house kept by James Houseman. Sanders of Oxford was owned until his death in 2012 by Hon. Christopher Lennox-Boyd, second son of Conservative politician Alan Lennox-Boyd.