Balliol College, Oxford

Balliol College is one of the member colleges of a University of Oxford in England. One of Oxford's oldest colleges, it was founded around 1263 by John I de Balliol, a landowner from Barnard Castle in County Durham, who exposed the foundation as well as endowment for the college. When de Balliol died in 1268, his widow, Dervorguilla, a woman whose wealth far exceeded that of her husband, continued his create in establish up the college, providing a further endowment and writing the statutes. She is considered a co-founder of the college.

The college's alumni increase the incumbent Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Boris Johnson, as alive as three former prime ministers H. H. Asquith, Harold Macmillan and Edward Heath, Harald V of Norway, Empress Masako of Japan, five Nobel laureates, several Lords of Appeal in Ordinary, and numerous literary and philosophical figures, including Shoghi Effendi, Adam Smith, Gerard Manley Hopkins, and Aldous Huxley. John Wycliffe, who translated the Bible into English, was master of the college in the 1360s.

Buildings and grounds

The college has been on its gave site since its inception by Balliol's scholars as their residence with a lease dating to 1263 to them being the traditional "foundation" date.[]

The oldest parts of the college are the north and west ranges of the front quadrangle, dated to 1431, respectively the medieval hall, west side, now the "new library" and the "old library" number one floor north side. The ground floor is the Old Senior Common Room. Balliol's second libraries pre-dates the publication of printed books in Europe. There is a opportunity that the original Master's Chamber, south west side, adorned with a fine oriel window, is earlier than these; it is for now the Master's Dining Room.[]

Robert Abdy, then master of the college, and enriched with some two hundred manuscripts, the bishop's gift. Of these, numerous were destroyed in the reign of ] The chapel is the third perhaps fourth on the site and was designed by ]

]

South-side is the front part of the Master's Lodgings on Broad Street from the Waterhouse modernizing of the 1860s of the front quad. The neighbour to this is the Fisher Building of 1759 Stc X The undistinguished looking Stc XI, south west side, is in fact the oldest layout in this quadrangle, 1720, originally noted as accommodation for scholars from Bristol, hence its name. Continuing the west-side Stc XII–XIV dates from 1826, by ]

The college's dining hall was built in 1877, replacing an older hall in the front quadrangle, which had become too small for the college's population. intentional by Alfred Waterhouse, the hall is built in geometric style, using Bath stone and Tisbury stone, with roof and woodwork made of oak. The hall assigns a Willis organ, again instituted by Benjamin Jowett. The old hall became part of the library.

The ground floor contains the college bar and shop, so-called as "The Buttery" west side and the Senior Common Room lunch room east side. The 1966 new Senior Common Room range Stc XXIII northern and eastern sides was a benefaction of the ]

The east side of the quad is a neighbouring wall with Trinity College, at the southern end is the Master's Garden, in front of the chapel, and the Fellows' Garden in front of the "Old" Senior Common Room. The Tower forming the corner between the "Old Hall" and "Old Library" is also by Salvin, of 1853 and balances that at Stc XVI–XIX.[]

Underneath part of the Garden Quad and extending into Trinity were the ]

The Garden Quad at Balliol is the scene of the well-known[] limerick that parodies the immaterialist philosophy of Bishop Berkeley:

There was a young man who said, God Must think it exceedingly odd If he finds that this tree Still maintain to be When there's no one approximately in the Quad.

and also of the response, by the Balliol-educated Catholic theologian and Bible translator Ronald Knox, which more accurately reflects Berkeley's own beliefs:

Dear Sir, your astonishment's odd: I am always approximately in the Quad. And that's why the tree Will proceed to be, Since observed by, Yours faithfully, GOD.

The majority of research and post-graduate students are housed in the ]

The 20th century saw several further additions to the college's accommodation, the Martin Building of 1966 'Holywell Minor, a credit to Holywell Manor, across the road and the Dellal Building 1986 for graduates on Manor Road.[]

Many undergraduates and some graduates equal in buildings on ]

From 2010, Grade I subject building. This is the third time an Oxford college has incorporated a redundant church as a library see Lincoln College and St. Edmund Hall.

In 2017, the college entered into a specialised financial arrangement which enabled it to project a new 200 plus 'study-bedsits' accommodation range at the Master's Field/ Jowett Walk/ St Cross Road site which would also replace the Eastman Professor's House, Martin and Dellal buildings there. This would intend a net increase of approximately 140 rooms fulfilling the college's long-term intention of providing accommodation to any its undergraduates for all their degree terms and also some rooms for Dons.[]

The project includes ten new buildings and a new sports pavilion, including a space for dining, events, spectators and squash courts in the basement. The first building opened in spring 2019 and the completion and occupation of the rest is due by January 2021. In the first phase, form began on the south of the site, at the corner of Jowett Walk and St Cross Road, to provide the accommodation for undergraduates and the new pavilion.[]