Exeter College

Exeter College stands on Turl Street in Oxford, a 14th-century foundation now surrounded by later stone buildings. Its Front Quadrangle still holds Palmer’s Tower from 1432, once the main gate, and a chapel built between 1854 and 1860 modelled on Paris’s Sainte-Chapelle. The dining hall of 1618 has ribbed ceilings and portraits, while the Fellows’ Garden leads to a modernist library in 13th-century style. Cohen Quad, opened in 2017, provides new study bedrooms on the former Ruskin College site. The college has produced writers including J. R. R. Tolkien, Philip Pullman and Alan Bennett, and figures such as Roger Bannister and Richard Burton studied here. In 2014 J. K. Rowling became an honorary fellow for her work in children’s literature. The Adelphi Wine Club, begun in the 1850s, once hosted lavish dinners and gambling before the college restricted membership. Women were first admitted in 1979 and the college elected its first female rector in 1993. Visitors walk past Palmer’s Tower into the Front Quadrangle, where the chapel’s stained glass and the hall’s vaulted ceiling impress. The Fellows’ Garden offers a quiet path to the Mound, which looks over Radcliffe Square and the Bodleian Library. Cohen Quad’s contemporary design contrasts with the older courts, and the college’s role in films like The Golden Compass and Tolkien can still be traced on site.