St Anne's College

St Anne’s College stands on a quiet triangle of land between Woodstock and Banbury roads, next to the University Parks. Founded in 1879 as a place where women could study whatever their means, it became a full Oxford college in 1959. The college still keeps its original aim of widening access, and today about three in five students are women. It sits on a compact site bounded by Bevington, Woodstock and Banbury roads, with modern buildings grouped around lawns and mature trees. The college has produced notable graduates such as Edwina Currie, Ruth Deech, Helen Fielding and Simon Rattle. Its principals have included Mary Ogilvie, Nancy Trenaman and Claire Palley, and since 2017 Helen King has led the college. The dining hall, opened in 1959 by Queen Elizabeth II, remains one of the largest in Oxford. A reconstruction of the Bevington Road student houses began in 2023 to prepare for future generations. Visitors walk past Victorian houses used for first-year rooms and communal kitchens. The Rayne and Wolfson buildings, added in the 1960s, house offices and student bedrooms in matching grey brick blocks. The Claire Palley Building, finished in 1992, introduced en-suite study bedrooms and a lecture theatre. Above the college bar in Banbury Road are first-year rooms known as ATB. Trenaman House holds a gym and the St Anne’s Coffee Shop, while the Ruth Deech Building, completed in 2005, provides further accommodation and facilities.