Dreaming Spires
The term dreaming spires is used allusively to refer to the city or university of Oxford.
It was coined by the English poet, essayist and social critic Matthew Arnold (1822-88) in Thyrsis, “a Monody, to commemorate the Author’s friend, Arthur Hugh Clough1, who died at Florence, 1861”, published in Macmillan’s Magazine (London) of April 1866.
On the far left is the spire of St Aldate's which is a Church of England parish church in the centre of Oxford, in the Deanery and Diocese of Oxford. The church is on the street named St Aldate's, opposite Christ Church college and next door to Pembroke College. The church has a large congregation and has a staff team of about 30 which includes clergy, pastoral and administrative staff. The offices of the Rector and other members of staff are at 40 Pembroke Street.
To the right of St Aldate's is the tower of the Hall and Forte Room of Pembroke College, which is a constituent college of the University of Oxford, is located at Pembroke Square, Oxford. The college was founded in 1624 by King James I of England, using in part the endowment of merchant Thomas Tesdale, and was named after William Herbert, 3rd Earl of Pembroke, Lord Chamberlain and then-Chancellor of the University.
Like many Oxford colleges, Pembroke previously accepted men only, admitting its first mixed-sex cohort in 1979. As of 2020, Pembroke had an estimated financial endowment of £63 million. Pembroke College provides almost the full range of study available at Oxford University.
Dominating the scene near the centre is Tom Tower which is a bell tower named after its bell, Great Tom. It is over Tom Gate, on St Aldates, the main entrance of Christ Church, Oxford, which leads into Tom Quad. This square tower with an octagonal lantern and facetted ogee dome was designed by Christopher Wren and built 1681–82. The strength of Oxford architectural tradition and Christ Church's connection to its founder, Henry VIII, motivated the decision to complete the gatehouse structure, left unfinished by Cardinal Wolsey at the date of his fall from power in 1529, and which had remained roofless since. Wren made a case for working in a Late Gothic style—that it "ought to be Gothick to agree with the Founders worke"—a style that had not been seen in a prominent building for a hundred and fifty years, making Tom Tower a lonely precursor of the Gothic Revival that got underway in the mid-18th century. Wren never came to supervise the structure as it was being erected by the stonemason he had recommended, Christopher Kempster of Burford.
Further right is the spire of Christ Church Cathedral which is the cathedral of the Anglican diocese of Oxford, which consists of the counties of Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire and Berkshire. It is also the chapel of Christ Church at the University of Oxford. This dual role as cathedral and college chapel is unique in the Church of England.
Far right is the Bodley Tower (named after the architect G. F. Bodley, rather than Thomas Bodley of Bodleian Library fame), which houses the staircase to the Hall which is seen here just in front of the tower. Although it fits in harmoniously with the Hall and other Gothic buildings, it was (like the Meadow Building) a nineteenth-century addition. In the course of renovating elements of the cathedral, the bells were moved to a wooden belfry above the stairs to a hall. Charles Dodgson, the maths tutor better known as Lewis Carroll, felt that this arrangement was wholly unsatisfactory and wrote a series of satires berating the arrangement, at one point calling the wooden structure a ‘tintinnabulatory tea chest’.
wordhistories.net/2018/09/12/dreaming-spires-origin/
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_Aldate%27s_Church
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pembroke_College,_Oxford
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Tower
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christ_Church_Cathedral,_Oxford
www.chch.ox.ac.uk/visiting-christ-church/bodley-tower-and...
Dreaming Spires
The term dreaming spires is used allusively to refer to the city or university of Oxford.
It was coined by the English poet, essayist and social critic Matthew Arnold (1822-88) in Thyrsis, “a Monody, to commemorate the Author’s friend, Arthur Hugh Clough1, who died at Florence, 1861”, published in Macmillan’s Magazine (London) of April 1866.
On the far left is the spire of St Aldate's which is a Church of England parish church in the centre of Oxford, in the Deanery and Diocese of Oxford. The church is on the street named St Aldate's, opposite Christ Church college and next door to Pembroke College. The church has a large congregation and has a staff team of about 30 which includes clergy, pastoral and administrative staff. The offices of the Rector and other members of staff are at 40 Pembroke Street.
To the right of St Aldate's is the tower of the Hall and Forte Room of Pembroke College, which is a constituent college of the University of Oxford, is located at Pembroke Square, Oxford. The college was founded in 1624 by King James I of England, using in part the endowment of merchant Thomas Tesdale, and was named after William Herbert, 3rd Earl of Pembroke, Lord Chamberlain and then-Chancellor of the University.
Like many Oxford colleges, Pembroke previously accepted men only, admitting its first mixed-sex cohort in 1979. As of 2020, Pembroke had an estimated financial endowment of £63 million. Pembroke College provides almost the full range of study available at Oxford University.
Dominating the scene near the centre is Tom Tower which is a bell tower named after its bell, Great Tom. It is over Tom Gate, on St Aldates, the main entrance of Christ Church, Oxford, which leads into Tom Quad. This square tower with an octagonal lantern and facetted ogee dome was designed by Christopher Wren and built 1681–82. The strength of Oxford architectural tradition and Christ Church's connection to its founder, Henry VIII, motivated the decision to complete the gatehouse structure, left unfinished by Cardinal Wolsey at the date of his fall from power in 1529, and which had remained roofless since. Wren made a case for working in a Late Gothic style—that it "ought to be Gothick to agree with the Founders worke"—a style that had not been seen in a prominent building for a hundred and fifty years, making Tom Tower a lonely precursor of the Gothic Revival that got underway in the mid-18th century. Wren never came to supervise the structure as it was being erected by the stonemason he had recommended, Christopher Kempster of Burford.
Further right is the spire of Christ Church Cathedral which is the cathedral of the Anglican diocese of Oxford, which consists of the counties of Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire and Berkshire. It is also the chapel of Christ Church at the University of Oxford. This dual role as cathedral and college chapel is unique in the Church of England.
Far right is the Bodley Tower (named after the architect G. F. Bodley, rather than Thomas Bodley of Bodleian Library fame), which houses the staircase to the Hall which is seen here just in front of the tower. Although it fits in harmoniously with the Hall and other Gothic buildings, it was (like the Meadow Building) a nineteenth-century addition. In the course of renovating elements of the cathedral, the bells were moved to a wooden belfry above the stairs to a hall. Charles Dodgson, the maths tutor better known as Lewis Carroll, felt that this arrangement was wholly unsatisfactory and wrote a series of satires berating the arrangement, at one point calling the wooden structure a ‘tintinnabulatory tea chest’.
wordhistories.net/2018/09/12/dreaming-spires-origin/
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_Aldate%27s_Church
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pembroke_College,_Oxford
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Tower
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christ_Church_Cathedral,_Oxford
www.chch.ox.ac.uk/visiting-christ-church/bodley-tower-and...