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Similar Tom Quad, Tom Tower, Peckwater Quadrangle, Christ Church Meadow, Blue Boar Quadrangle | ||
The Meadow Building (known as "Meadows" to students, aka Meadow Buildings) is part of Christ Church, Oxford, England, one of the Oxford colleges, looking out south onto Christ Church Meadow on Broad Walk and then along the straight tree-lined Poplar Walk to the River Thames.
Contents
Map of Meadow Building, Oxford OX1, UK
The building is used at the public entrance for paying visitors to Christ Church instead of the main entrance under Tom Tower in St Aldate's.
History and description
The building was constructed in 1862–66 to the designs of Sir Thomas Deane of Dublin in the Venetian style (favoured by the famous Christ Church art historian John Ruskin). Single rooms in the Meadow Building look out over either the college or the Christ Church Meadow, although originally, college undergraduates would be given a suite of rooms with views overlooking both sides. Recent building work has converted most of these rooms to ensuite while leaving one staircase, which is primarily non-residential, as was.
When it was first built, the relative distance of the Meadow Building from the more fashionable Peckwater and Canterbury Quads meant that it was considered the least desirable accommodation in college.
Pevsner described it is a "joyless building".