Oxford's Green and Pleasant Land
Green College can make no claim to be anything like the oldest college in the university. The graduate college celebrates just its 25th anniversary this year, yet like so much of Oxford the site itself has a rich and varied history.
The re-opening of the 18th century Radcliffe Observatory last Sunday forms part of a four season plan to restore the buildings to their original condition, and the opportunity to see some of Oxford's lesser known masterpieces is a rare one.
Green is not a college well known to the majority of undergradutes, but it's a college worth visiting. The Radcliffe Observatory, the centrepiece of Sunday's open day, sits right in the middle. It was built with funds from the trustees of Dr John Radcliffe, who died in 1714 having already made a significant contribution to the University.
The Observatory was begun in 1772, but eventually completed to a different design by the prolific James Wyatt. Wyatt based his ideas on the Tower of the Winds in Athens, and the observatory itself stands monument to the neo-classical achitecture.
Inside the structure is simple and striking. A precarious iron staircase takes you right to the top; the views across the city easily rival those provided by the over-priced University Church, and the vista down from the balcony across the room itself is equally impressive.
Light and spacious, the hefty telescopes and recording equipment of yester-year have been removed to leave a room with no other purpose than that of simple view-gazing, a pleasurable pastime indeed.
The idea of an observatory in Oxford was conceived by Rev Thomas Hornsby who realised the importance of improved astronomical observation as a prerequisite for marine navigation. The actual observatory is built so that the four sides of the building match directly with the points of the compass to enable careful measurement of the transit of Venus across the Sun (which, incidentally, can be seen in Oxford on June 8th).
The building functioned as an observatory for 160 years, until research moved to the less polluted environment of South Africa in1934. At that time the site was sold to William Morris (later of Morris Motors), and was later given back to the University before a movement in the 1970s for the foundation of a college devoted specifically to clinical medicine saw the site become today's Green College.
Green is perhaps typical of Oxford - that is, the city and University behind the well-trodden tourist trail.
Often hidden away and little known about, but - even for those who are uninterested in history - well worth discovering all the same.
20th May 2004