Christ Church Oxford

Tom Tower by Ian Fraser	Peckwater Quad by Ian Fraser
Tom Quad by Ian Fraser	The Cathedral Spire by Ian Fraser
Winter over Christ Church Meadow by Tom Milner-Gulland	The Meadow Building No.2 by Ian Fraser
Christ Church Meadow, Oxford by Rod Craig	Tom Tower by Tom Milner-Gulland
Tom Tower from St. Aldates by Ray Rawlings	Tom Tower by Peter Farley
Tom Quad by Tom Milner-Gulland	The Hall from the Gardens by Ray Rawlings
The Dreaming Spires Oxford from Hinksey Heights by Tom Milner-Gulland
Christ Church was founded by King Henry VIII although the project had earlier been started by Cardinal Wolsey. It holds the unique dual role as a college of the university and also the cathedral of the diocese of Oxford. It is built on the original site of St Frideswide's Priory. The Great Quadrangle (Tom Quad) was completed by 1668, over one hundred and thirty years after it was started. The buildings on the north range, where Wolsey had originally planned to put the chapel, were given over to houses for the canons. Apart from the addition of a classical balustrade to the roof-line the new range of buildings are architecturally the same as the earlier buildings. In 1670 three flights of steps and the basin now known as Mercury were installed, the pond providing a reservoir for the college In 1682 Tom Tower was erected over Wolsey’s unfinished gateway and was designed by Christopher Wren to house Great Tom, the six and a half ton bell which used to hang in Osney Abbey until the Reformation. Wolsey’s architects had planned elaborate gate towers flanked by corner turrets but Wren substituted these with a square tower with a tall octagonal lantern topped with an ogee shaped dome. At 9.05pm every evening Great Tom tolls 101 times for the original number of students, plus one by bequest.