Radcliffe Camera
The Radcliffe Camera from St Mary's tower
The circular dome and drum of the Radcliffe Camera provides one of Oxford's most iconic sights, and is a distinctive landmark in a city full of distinctive landmarks! The camera (the word means simply "room") was built 1737-1749 with 40,000 pounds bequeathed by Dr John Radcliffe, the royal physician.
Radcliffe was the most successful physician in England, and in his will he left money to purchase land, build a library, purchase books, and pay a full-time librarian. A site was purchased north of University Church (St Mary's), on a new square created when old houses were torn down.
Designs were called for from several leading architects, including Nicholas Hawksmoor (responsible for much of All Soul's College) and James Gibbs.
It was Gibbs who won the competition, with his elegant Palladian design, though his final plans drew heavily on earlier work by Hawksmoor. Gibbs was also responsible for the Church of St Martin-in-the-Fields, in Trafalgar Square, London. The building was known as the Radcliffe Library, a moniker it enjoyed until 1860.
The library functioned independently of the Bodleian Library, the other main University library. Few readers used its jumbled collection of books, but in the early 19th century a concerted effort was made to focus on natural history and medical books.
In 1860 the Radcliffe Library was taken over by the Bodleian Library and was renamed the Radcliffe Camera. The Camera's collections were gradually moved to other University libraries so that today the Camera functions as the main reading room of the Bodleian.
Radcliffe Camera
The Radcliffe Camera from St Mary's tower
The circular dome and drum of the Radcliffe Camera provides one of Oxford's most iconic sights, and is a distinctive landmark in a city full of distinctive landmarks! The camera (the word means simply "room") was built 1737-1749 with 40,000 pounds bequeathed by Dr John Radcliffe, the royal physician.
Radcliffe was the most successful physician in England, and in his will he left money to purchase land, build a library, purchase books, and pay a full-time librarian. A site was purchased north of University Church (St Mary's), on a new square created when old houses were torn down.
Designs were called for from several leading architects, including Nicholas Hawksmoor (responsible for much of All Soul's College) and James Gibbs.
It was Gibbs who won the competition, with his elegant Palladian design, though his final plans drew heavily on earlier work by Hawksmoor. Gibbs was also responsible for the Church of St Martin-in-the-Fields, in Trafalgar Square, London. The building was known as the Radcliffe Library, a moniker it enjoyed until 1860.
The library functioned independently of the Bodleian Library, the other main University library. Few readers used its jumbled collection of books, but in the early 19th century a concerted effort was made to focus on natural history and medical books.
In 1860 the Radcliffe Library was taken over by the Bodleian Library and was renamed the Radcliffe Camera. The Camera's collections were gradually moved to other University libraries so that today the Camera functions as the main reading room of the Bodleian.