Keble College, University college in Oxford, England
Keble College is a university college in Oxford, England, set apart from its neighbors by red Victorian brickwork that contrasts with the pale stone common elsewhere in the city. The site is organized around five courtyards, with rooms reached along corridors rather than through staircases opening directly onto the quadrangles as in many older colleges.
The college opened in 1870 as a memorial to John Keble, an influential Anglican theologian. William Butterfield designed the buildings, choosing brickwork that deliberately broke with the medieval stone of older colleges and was considered radically modern at the time.
The college takes its name from John Keble, an Anglican priest and poet who helped shape the Oxford Movement of the nineteenth century. Today the chapel draws visitors who come to see The Light of the World by William Holman Hunt, one of the most recognized religious paintings of the Victorian era.
The chapel is open to visitors at certain times, and checking the college website before arriving is advisable. The grounds are easy to walk through, with most publicly accessible areas either at ground level or reached by simple staircases.
The dining hall is said to be the longest among Oxford colleges and maintains the tradition of communal meals during term. The chapel's stained glass forms one of the most extensive cycles of Victorian glass painting in England.
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