St Peter’s College

Many, many years ago I was a student here. The college buildings are not stereotypical for an Oxford college, but then the college was only founded in 1929, so a series of gothic quads would be a bit of a surprise! In fact, many of the buildings shown here were built or rebuilt since my student days, although the dining hall (the building on the left of this drawing) is mainly original and was once part of the medieval New Inn Hall, which was eventually merged into Balliol College towards the end of the 19th century.

An interesting effect I notice in this drawing is that since all the buildings are drawn in the same manner using the same pen, the architectural contrast between the old and the new buildings is rather muted. I don’t mean to imply that I dislike this contrast – merely to note the effect of this drawing medium on the resulting image.

For the record, as a former pupil from a state comprehensive school, I always felt completely at home at St Peter’s, even though at the time my background was not that common in my college and even less so in the university as a whole. I think that things have changed quite a lot since then, but nevertheless I am pleased to see that the current college website continues to emphasise a commitment to making a great education “available to students of the greatest potential, irrespective of means or background”.