Wadham College

Wadham College stands in central Oxford at the corner of Broad Street and Parks Road. Founded in 1610 by Dorothy Wadham, it is one of Oxford University’s larger colleges, with about 480 undergraduates and 240 graduates. The main buildings were designed by William Arnold and completed between 1610 and 1613 in a style now called Jacobean Gothic. A tall frontispiece frames statues of James I and the Wadhams as visitors enter. The central quadrangle was originally gravelled and only became a lawn in 1809. The college is worth visiting for its role in early science. In the 1650s John Wilkins, warden at Wadham, hosted the Oxford Philosophical Club whose members included Robert Boyle, Robert Hooke and a young Christopher Wren. These meetings formed the nucleus of the Royal Society, founded in 1662. Wren later returned to Wadham as Savilian Professor of Astronomy. The college also holds a statue of Maurice Bowra, warden from 1938 to 1970, who shaped Wadham’s open and meritocratic character. Inside the front quad the Hall remains a grand Jacobean room with classical detail and symmetrical windows. The Warden’s lodgings once contained telescopes on the tower and cabinets of scientific instruments. Beyond the quadrangle lie the Wadham Gardens, where a statue of Bowra stands among the flowerbeds. The college’s modern buildings continue the tradition of symmetry and careful detail established four centuries ago.