Frewin Hall

Frewin Hall stands on New Inn Hall Street in Oxford, occupying the site of the medieval Augustinian College of St Mary, founded in 1435 and dissolved in 1540. The buildings subsequently became a University hall, then a charity school and almshouse before passing to Brazenose College in 1580, the present owners.

The hall comprises an L-shaped block with a west wing, south wing, and later eastern additions. The west gateway, dating from the 16th century, survives with a 4-centred arch and the springings of a 15th-century gate-hall vault. The north wall retains a blocked window. A 2-storeyed rubble outbuilding, possibly 17th century, stands nearby.

The principal east doorway, reset at the west end of Frewin Court, dates from 1667 (with the date inscribed in the spandrels). It features a panelled wooden door with a wicket and an elliptical head.

The west wing preserves the medieval cellar of St Mary's College, containing a reused late 12th-century cylindrical stone column with a moulded base and scalloped capital, from which rise two later pointed stone arches beneath a barrel vault. The upper part was converted and rebuilt as a house around 1582 by Griffith Lloyd, Principal of Jesus College. The south elevation was refaced in the early 18th century with 2-storeyed rubble, a band at the first floor, stone coping, three stone-faced stacks, and a modern red tile roof. The upper storey is a 19th-century replacement. The ground floor has a central doorway with an 18th-century 2-columned porch with moulded entablature, flanked by modern sash windows and a 3-light French window. Above the porch is a large sundial dated 1888 in a pedimented frame, with a 3-light window and sash windows to either side. The north side incorporates later additions; alterations carried out by Dr Shadwell after 1887 were designed by architect Graham Jackson.

The south wing was built in 1721 as a 2-storeyed rubble structure with a brown tile roof, two hipped attic dormers on the west elevation and three on the east. The west side contains three first-floor sash windows and two ground-floor windows, all in stone frames. A modern stone porch erected by Dr Shadwell in the north-west angle features a segmental pediment and moulded frame, inscribed with a chronogram incorporating the names Frewin and Shadwell. The east side has a large rebuilt eaves stack of stone and 18th-century windows.

Two 1-storeyed buildings on the east are of indeterminate late date and are not included in the grading.

The interior includes the medieval cellar, late 16th-century panelling, plaster ceilings, a fireplace, and 18th-century features.

The site's history begins with Dr Richard Frewin, a tenant in the early 18th century, who built the south wing and apparently doubled the width of the west wing whilst refacing it. On his death in 1761, he left the lease as a residence for the Regius Professor of Medicine, a use that continued until 1849. The house was occupied by the Prince of Wales (later King Edward VII) in 1860–1861, and subsequently by James Skene, Dr C L Shadwell (Provost of Oriel), from 1887, and by Sir Charles Oman until his death in 1946.