St Hugh'S College Main Building Including Library

St Hugh's College Main Building Including Library

College buildings designed by architect H.T. Buckland and W. Haywood, constructed 1914–16 with minor alterations and extensions to the initial build, a new range added in matching style in 1928, and a library added in 1936.

The Main Building is constructed of red brick with ashlar cornice all round and ashlar dressings to the entrance block, with tiled roofs and cast iron hoppers bearing heraldic badges. It is Neo-Georgian in style, planned on an H-plan arrangement, with the dining hall positioned below the former library in the east wing, a chapel over the entrance projecting to the centre front, and a central imperial staircase serving ranges of studies and bedrooms. The building is two storeys with an attic storey. Sash windows are employed throughout; those to the attic are positioned in flat-roofed lead dormers set behind a parapet.

The entrance block is cruciform in plan and Baroque in style, featuring rusticated brick quoins, pedimented gables broken by radiating arched windows, and a domed wooden lantern. The projecting gable to the front has an ashlar doorcase with panelled pilasters and a carved heraldic cartouche breaking into a swan-neck pediment. Plainer accommodation wings flank either side, with paired and single sashes and canted stair towers in the far angles rising to balustraded stone parapets. A single-storey extension extends to the front left. The garden front displays a similar pedimented gable projecting to the centre, with an arched stair window in an ashlar panel and a Tuscan porch with balustraded parapet. Side ranges feature ground-floor bow windows, and the projecting end wings have been extended by one bay.

The interior contains an entrance hall with Tuscan columns, staircases with twisted balusters, and corridors fitted with six-panel doors in architrave frames with frieze and cornice. The chapel is planned on a shallow cruciform form with plaster groin and barrel vaults, enriched guilloche arches, raised and fielded panelling, and a colour scheme by Laurence Whistler. Original fittings remain, including an organ, with splat stick balustrading to the pews, chairs and altar rails. The dining hall features wall pilasters, a panelled fireplace and arched serving hatches. Arched doors lead to the adjacent common room, which has a Jacobean-style panelled fireplace. The former library above is fitted with arched trusses, wooden wall pilasters, and an end gallery.

The Mary Gray Allen Wing, dating to circa 1928, is built in a matching style but with segment-headed dormers breaking through the parapet and two full-height bow windows. The interior features reeded doorcases and an interlace pattern to the ceiling coves. It is included for group value.

The Library of 1936 is constructed in paler red brick with ashlar dressings and a hipped pantile roof. It is designed in a modern Baroque style, with a massive entablature on a five-bay giant order of deeply chamfered brick pilasters. The building is two storeys high. Tall sash windows to the ground floor are set in stone architrave surrounds with segmental pediments; square windows light the upper storey. A three-bay end elevation facing the garden features a canted ashlar bay to its centre. A similar ashlar bay appears in the staircase link connecting the library to the main building, with horizontal glazing to the door.

The library interior contains a curving stair with a continuously ribbed plaster soffit, horizontal balustrading, and dark-stained veneer panelling incorporating two niches for statues of the founder and St Hugh. The upper library features a deeply coved oval ceiling rising to a central light with patterned glazing bars; an end gallery with ramped horizontal balustrading; and flush veneer panelling with inlaid shaped panels and zig-zag patterns to the frieze. Original wooden shelving and fittings are retained. This is a complete specialist interior of the 1930s executed with high-quality detailing. A dedication to Howard Piper, including an inscription on the entablature, is of recent date.

St Hugh's was founded as St Hugh's Hall in 1886 for female students and was the third such foundation at Oxford. In 1911 it became a college by name, and in 1959 it attained status as a full college. The original college building is notable for its incorporation of entrance, chapel, dining hall, library and corridors of studies and bedrooms into a single H-plan. The plan is of particular interest for its variance from the standard Oxford staircase system, a reflection of the new foundation's purpose as a college for women only. The simple Neo-Georgian style is enlivened by the Baroque entrance and chapel block, with its rusticated quoins, pediments, carved doorcase and lantern, and is enhanced through grouping with ashlar lodges. The garden front is consciously more gracious, featuring a pedimented centrepiece and bow windows to the ground floor. The building retains good ashlar details and consistent original interior finishes.