St John's College, Oxford
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St John's College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. It was founded by Sir Thomas White, a merchant, in 1555, and his heart is buried in the chapel. It is the most wealthy college at Oxford with an estimated financial endowment of £220m (2003).
Although primarily a producer of Anglican clergymen in the earlier periods of its history, St John's also gained a reputation for both law and medicine. Fellows and alumni have included Archbishop Laud, Jane Austen's father and brothers, the early Fabian intellectual Sidney Ball, who was very influential in the creation of the Workers' Educational Association (WEA), Abdul Rasul, one of the first Bengalis to gain the degree of Bachelor of Civil Law at Oxford, and more recently, Tony Blair.
The site was formerly the Cistercian monastery of St Bernard. Fairly large, it comprises approximately 400 undergraduates and 250 postgraduates and academic staff. The college stands on St Giles', and is close to the Martyrs' Memorial. The college's Sir Thomas White Quadrangle is an early work by Ove Arup which won the 1976 Concrete Society Award, but is considered a monstrosity by some members of the college.
In addition, the College accommodates a number of students, traditionally second-years but nowadays also a significant number of finalists, in the houses owned by the college on Museum Road and Blackhall Road. These houses back onto Queen Elizabeth House, which accommodates the Centre for International Development; plans are underway to convert Queen Elizabeth House into what the College is calling "the last great quad in the city centre". This will mean the college will extend for almost the entire length of the east side of St Giles, as well as owning parts of the opposite side. This includes the recent purchase of the "Eagle and Child" pub (where the well-known writers J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis often met their literary friends) to complement the "Lamb and Flag" opposite it on the college side of the road.
| Colleges of the University of Oxford |
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|---|---|
| All Souls | Balliol | Brasenose | Christ Church | Corpus Christi | Exeter | Green | Harris Manchester | Hertford | Jesus | Keble | Kellogg | Lady Margaret Hall | Linacre | Lincoln | Magdalen | Mansfield | Merton | New College | Nuffield | Oriel | Pembroke | Queen's | St Anne's | St Antony's | St Catherine's | St Cross | St Edmund Hall | St Hilda's | St Hugh's | St John's | St Peter's | Somerville | Templeton | Trinity | University | Wadham | Wolfson | Worcester | |
| Permanent Private Halls at the University of Oxford | |
| Blackfriars | Campion Hall | Greyfriars | Regent's Park College | St Benet's Hall | St Stephen's House | Wycliffe Hall | |
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