Chapel of St Luke, Radcliffe Infirmary is a Grade II listed building in the Oxford local planning authority area, England. First listed on 28 June 1972. Chapel.
Chapel of St Luke, Radcliffe Infirmary
- WRENN ID
- silent-soffit-rye
- Grade
- II
- Local Planning Authority
- Oxford
- Constituency
- Oxford West and Abingdon MP: Layla Moran (LD)
- Country
- England
- Date first listed
- 28 June 1972
- Type
- Chapel
- Address
- Chapel of St Luke, Radcliffe Infirmary, Woodstock Road
- OS grid reference
- SP 510 071
- Coordinates
- 51.76047, -1.26211
- Source
- Historic England listing
Description
The Chapel of St Luke at the Radcliffe Infirmary was built in 1865 by architect A.W. Blomfield. This early English Gothic chapel is constructed from coursed rubble and features stone tracery along with a steeply pitched red tile roof topped with a bell turret. It is connected to the infirmary by a pitched-roof corridor and forms one side of the courtyard in front of the main building.
The chapel has a rectangular plan consisting of five bays plus a chancel, with a transept porch located on the south wall beneath the bellcote. Inside, the bays are defined by wooden trusses with cusped undersides. Each bay contains a window featuring a pair of narrow cusped lancets topped with pointed trefoils and quatrefoils, which have carved hood stops. The east end window consists of three stepped lancets framed by tall colonnettes with small capitals that support thin roll mouldings and foliate roundels in the spandrels. The stained glass depicts nine miracles of healing and the Resurrection, possibly designed by Holiday. There is also a ventilation roundel in the east gable, and a plaque on the south wall commemorates Thomas Combe, who died in 1872, and the chapel's consecration on June 7, 1865.
On the exterior, the south elevation facing the courtyard features buttresses and lancet windows, highlighted by an entrance portal at the west end. This portal has a gabled surround and a segmental-headed doorway with a pointed tympanum carved with Christ as the Good Shepherd, flanked by kneeling angels. The capitals are adorned with stiff-leaf foliage, and there is a stiff-leaf roundel at the apex of the gable. The bellcote is located at the east end of the south wall, and the chapel is connected to the main block by a four-bay corridor with a pitched stone slate roof.
Historically, the infirmary chapel was originally located in the main block of the Radcliffe Infirmary above the Board Room until this new chapel was constructed. The Radcliffe Infirmary Buildings are recognized as a group for their architectural significance.
Local climate
Chapel of St Luke, Radcliffe Infirmary sits in a drier-than-average part of the UK, with an average of 730 mm of rain a year. This makes it drier than 77% of listed buildings in the UK. Its exposure to wind-driven rain is lower than that of 70% of listed buildings.
It experiences an average of 34 freeze-thaw cycles a year, more than 50% of listed buildings. Of these, 15 follow at least 1 mm of rain in the preceding 48 hours. Average temperatures at this location have risen by 0.3°C per decade since 1991.
Averages for 1991–2020; temperature trend 1991–2025. Figures describe the wider area (a grid cell of roughly 10 km), not the individual site. Contains modified Copernicus Climate Change Service information 2026.
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