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Central · Founded 1438

All Souls College

A unique research college composed only of Fellows (no undergraduates), famed for its notoriously hard Fellowship examination and its architectural set-piece on Radcliffe Square.

Official site ↗

Founded 1438. Founded in 1438 by King Henry VI and Henry Chichele, Archbishop of Canterbury, as a memorial to those who died in the Hundred Years' War.

Medieval and Gothic Revival: the 15th-century Front Quad and Chapel sit beside Nicholas Hawksmoor's early-18th-century North Quad with its distinctive twin Gothic towers and the Codrington Library.

Don’t miss

  • chapel with hammerbeam roof and carved reredos
  • Codrington Library
  • Hawksmoor's twin towers
  • Front Quad and sundial
  • Great Quad

Notable names

T.E. Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia), a Fellow · Sir Christopher Wren, a Fellow · Sir Isaiah Berlin · William Blackstone · the Mallard Song ceremony

Visiting

Access is restricted; it is not a general tourist college and admits visitors only at limited times, so entry cannot be assumed.

Opening hours, admission and current access change often — check the official site before you go.