TheGreat Quadrangle, more popularly known asTom Quad, is one of the quadrangles ofChrist Church, Oxford, England. It is the largest collegequad inOxford, measuring 264 by 261 feet. Although it was begun byCardinal Wolsey in 1525–1529, he was unable to complete it before his fall from power.
Wolsey planned acloister, but only the starts of the arches on the walls, and of the supports jutting into the lawn were done; these can still be seen around the quadrangle. The main entrance was also left incomplete, and it is not known how the gatehouse was planned to look. After some 150 years, the gatehouse was completed in 1681–1682 withTom Tower, designed bySir Christopher Wren, whenJohn Fell was Dean. A statue of Queen Anne on Tom Tower overlooks the main entrance to the Quad.[1] The quad islisted Grade I on theNational Heritage List for England.[2]
The funds for the building of Tom Quad were found from the suppression of threeNorbertine abbeys. It is dominated to the west byTom Tower, designed bySir Christopher Wren.[3] On the east side is the entrance toChrist Church Cathedral and at the south-east corner is the entrance to the collegedining hall.[4] The north contains the homes of thecanons of Christ Church, and much of the east side is taken up with theDeanery, in which the Dean of the college lives.[5] On the north-east side, the quad leads, via Kilcannon, toPeckwater Quadrangle and the college library.[5] In the north-west part of the quad is theJunior Common Room ("JCR"). Parts of the quad are still lived in by undergraduates, including the staircase above the Porter's lodge, known as "Bachelors' Row", to the left of the quadrangle when entered via Tom Gate. Bachelors' Row was only inhabited by first year male undergraduates until 2014, when the first female first year undergraduates took up residence there.
In the centre of the quad, there is an ornamental pond with a statue ofMercury. In the past, it was traditional for "hearties" (sporty students) to throw "aesthetes" (more artistic students) into this pond.[6] Currently, entrance to Mercury carries a heavy fine for undergraduates. The pond also contains a largekoi carp apparently worth a hefty sum, and donated by the Empress of Japan.[7] The base of the fountain was designed by SirEdwin Lutyens, the architect who designed much of India's modern capitalNew Delhi.[8]
Lady Gwendolyn Cecil, in the biography of her father (the last Victorian Prime MinisterLord Salisbury), recounts how as a student in the 1840s, he rescued his bookish friends from being dunked in the fountains, by infiltrating thehearties and tipping off his friends about the time of the planned raid, and arranging with them a counter-ambush:
Late that night the intended victim sat in full view of his window, apparently solitary and absorbed in a book. But when his opponents approached the room, flushed with wine and encouraged by the certainty of victory by the unsported oak before them and by the silence that reigned around, they were suddenly startled by a yell from the dark abyss of the staircase above and at the same moment overborne by a tumultuously rushing descent. A minute later, entirely demoralized, they were flying around the quad pursued by a dozen of the most sober, respectable, and peace-loving of the reading men in the college... The next day their opponents were the laughing-stock of the college, and for some time to come a man at Christ Church might read as much and drink as little as he pleased with complete impunity'.[9]
.jpg)
51°45′01″N1°15′21″W / 51.75028°N 1.25583°W /51.75028; -1.25583
Media related toChrist Church Great Quadrangle at Wikimedia Commons
