St Catherine's College

St Catherine’s College stands on the east side of Oxford, beside the River Cherwell. The buildings, designed by the Danish architect Arne Jacobsen, form a modernist quadrangle of glass, brick and concrete. Jacobsen also chose the furniture, cutlery, lampshades and even the fish for the pond. Nikolaus Pevsner called the original design ‘a perfect piece of architecture’. In 1993 the college received a Grade I listing. The gardens, laid out by Jacobsen, now have the highest level of historic protection. The college grew from a society founded in 1868 to help poorer students study at Oxford. Alan Bullock led the campaign that turned the society into a full college in 1962. In 1974 it became one of the first men’s colleges to admit women. The current master is Jude Kelly, a theatre director and former director of the Southbank Centre. The college marks its patron saint with an annual Catz Night dinner and a giant Catherine wheel in the quad. Visitors enter a quadrangle framed by low blocks no higher than three storeys. The dining hall, lecture rooms and library open off covered walkways. Jacobsen’s furniture and fittings remain in place, from the chairs in the hall to the cutlery in the buttery. The pond at the heart of the gardens reflects the brick and glass façades. Beyond the college walls the Cherwell curves past playing fields and allotments.