Library-based research – more chapels.
Sometimes wading through books and web-pages is the most sensible way forward, but it was frustrating to be doing this on a day when the weather was perfect for stained glass photography!
Omissions are the ever-present danger of trying to produce a ‘definitive’ publication and the last thing I want to hear on publication of book entitled ‘The Stained Glass & Chapels of Oxford’ is, ‘why didn’t you include…?’! Hence today’s research – and it was not wasted as I have identified a further seven chapels (albeit five of which I believe to have no stained glass):
- Asian Cultural Centre, Manzil Way: built in 1865, this is the former chapel of the now demolished Cowley Road Workhouse.
- Chapel, Campion Hall: This private chapel run by the Society of Jesus, is one of the Permanent Private Halls of the University of Oxford. The buildings, along with many of the fixtures and fittings, were designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens, his only buildings in Oxford.
- House Chapel, St Stephen’s House: the private chapel of an Anglican theological college (one of six religious Permanent Private Halls of the University of Oxford).
- Priory Chapel, Blackfriars: the private chapel of the Dominican Friars in Oxford, within the Permanent Private Hall of the University of Oxford.
- Rose Hill Cemetery Chapel: Lying within the centre of one an eleven acre Victorian cemetery that contains 16,700 burials, the chapel remains in use despite the cemetery being full.
- St Teresa of Avila Chapel, Rye St Antony School: Tucked away in the school’s wooded grounds is this private chapel at the heart of the Catholic school’s spiritual life.
- Warneford Hospital Chapel: ‘On the summit of Headington Hill is the Warneford lunatic asylum, opened in 1826, for the accommodation of lunatics selected from the higher classes of society.’ Today the site is Warneford Hospital which provides mental health services for Oxfordshire. The chapel remains in use, more often as a small music venue, but infrequent services are still held there.