Clarendon Building, Oxford

You will find the Clarendon Building on Broad Street. It is part of the Bodleian Library and students often use its steps as a rallying point for protests and demonstrations.

It was built in 1715 by Nicholas Hawksmoor, who also designed six of London’s famous churches. Its main purpose was to house the Oxford University Press and was paid for out of the proceeds from Lord Clarendon’s classic “History of the Rebellion and Civil Wars in England”.

The building is rectangular in shape and built in the Classical style with the portico supported by four Tuscan pillars. The main entrance is arched with an arched niche above it, where there was once a statue of Lord Clarendon by Francis Bird. The statue now stands in a niche on the west side of the building, while the entrance niche is now a window.

The figures around the roof are by Sir James Thornhill. They are lead statues representing the nine Muses: Calliope (epic poetry) carrying a writing tablet; Clio (History) bearing scrolls; Erato (love poetry) playing a cithara; Euterpe (song) playing a flute; Melpomene (tragedy) with a tragic mask; Thalia (comedy) with a comic mask; Polyhymnia (hymns) with her veil; Terpsichore (dance) strumming a lyre and Urania (astronomy) holding a globe and a compass.