Christ Church, Oxford

constituent college of the University of Oxford in England

Christ Church [1] is one of the largest colleges of the University of Oxford.[2] The college was founded by Henry VIII in 1546.

Tom Tower

As well as being a college, Christ Church is also the cathedral church of the diocese of Oxford, namely Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford.

People

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Christ Church has produced thirteen British prime ministers. This is equal to the number produced by all 45 other Oxford colleges put together, and two short of the total number for the University of Cambridge (fifteen).

Appearance in novels

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The college is the setting for parts of Evelyn Waugh's Brideshead Revisited, as well as Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. More recently it has been used in the filming of the movies of J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter series and also the movie adaptation of Philip Pullman's novel Northern Lights (the movie bearing the title of the US edition of the book, The Golden Compass).

Architecture

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Distinctive features of the college's architecture have been used as models by a number of other academic institutions. The University of Chicago and Cornell University both have reproductions of Christ Church's dining hall. Christ Church Cathedral, New Zealand, after which the City of Christchurch is named, is itself named after Christ Church, Oxford. Stained glass windows in the cathedral and other buildings are by the Pre-Raphaelite William Morris group with designs by Edward Burne-Jones.[3][4]

Female students

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The college has admitted female students since 1978.[5]

References

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  1. Latin: Ædes Christi, the temple (æděs) or house (ædēs) of Christ, and thus sometimes known as The House
  2. Even so, the numbers are quite small by modern standards: about 425 undergraduates and 250 postgraduates.
  3. Edward Burne-Jones Archived 2006-07-24 at the Wayback Machine Southgate Green Association "His work included both stained-glass windows for Christ Church in Oxford and the stained glass windows for Christ Church on Southgate Green".
  4. PreRaphaelite Painting and Design Archived 2008-10-14 at the Wayback Machine University of Texas
  5. "Christ Church, Oxford". Archived from the original on 2012-02-18. Retrieved 2011-04-23.