oriel

for the first two years i worked in oxford i lived in pembroke college, as you probably know.  this year i'm in oriel college, so i thought i'd show you what this college looks like!  i've actually struggled a bit with what to photograph and put on the blog this year, because i've put a lot of picture on in the past and i don't know what is NEW! and INTERESTING! to show you this year.  and then i remembered that you haven't seen oriel.  so here it is!

oriel was founded in 1326.  this is not a typo.  in 1326 it was just a collection of teachers and students, and the physical college wasn't built until the 1600s.  this is the front of the college today.

this is a close up of the main gate to the college, where we enter and exit - you'll see that a door is cut into the larger gate so you don't have to open the whole huge gate when someone wants to enter or leave.

the first quad you enter as you go into the college is called...wait for it...first quad.  this is the view after you walk through the gate; the dining hall is pictured here with dorm rooms and classrooms on the left and right sides of the quad.

if you go into the dining hall, it's exactly as harry potter-esque as you'd imagine it would be.  at the top of this photo you'll see (vaguely) the largest painting in existence of queen elizabeth II.  oriel is a royal college (founded by king edward II or something) and is the only royal college at oxford university.  so perhaps this is why they get this fancy painting?  the other paintings are of former heads of the college, benefactors, etc.

if you go back out into first quad and walk through an archway to your left you enter...second quad!

i live in second quad, in this building on the right; the entrance is between the two tall bushes/trees/whatever.

there is a third quad through a passageway if you were to walk straight ahead in the above photo, and then there is a tunnel under the street that emerges in a fourth quad, called "the island" because it's set apart from the rest of the college.  neither of those quads are particularly different from the ones i've shown here, so...i got lazy and didn't photograph them.  oops.