is one of the
Constituent Colleges of the
University Of Oxford in the
United Kingdom , located at the southern end of
Parks Road in central
Oxford . It was founded by
Nicholas and
Dorothy Wadham , wealthy
Somerset landowners, during the reign of
King James I .
Nicholas Wadham died in
1609 leaving his fortune towards the endowment of an Oxford college. The design and implementation of this vague intention fell to his wife Dorothy, a diligent septuagenarian. In a period of only four years, she gained royal and ecclesiastical support for the new college, negotiated the purchase of a site, appointed the west country architect
William Arnold , drew up the college statutes, and appointed the first warden, fellows, scholars, and cook. Although she never visited Oxford, she kept tight control of her new college and its finances until her death in
1618 .
Although it is one of the youngest of the historic colleges, Wadham has some of the oldest and best preserved buildings, a result of the rash of rebuilding that occurred throughout Oxford during the 17th century. It is often considered as perhaps the last major English public building to be created according to the mediaeval tradition of the master mason. Wadham's front quad, which served as almost the entire college until the mid-20th century, is also the first example of the "Jacobean Gothic" style that was adopted for many of the University's buildings. A dramatic expansion since 1952 has made use of a range of 17th and 18th century houses, a converted warehouse originally built to store bibles, and several modern buildings designed by . The college was refaced in the 1960s.
Under the original statutes, women were forbidden from entering the college, with the exception of a laundress who was to be of 'such age, condition, and reputation as to be above suspicion.' These rules were relaxed over the years, and in
1974 they were altered to allow for the admission of women as full members of college at all levels. In fact, Wadham was the first historically all-male college to have a female student.
Wadham has a well-deserved reputation for being a progressive and tolerant college. In 1975 the Junior Common Room (JCR) chose to re-brand itself as a "Students Union", becoming the first Oxford College to do so; subsequently the adjacent quadrangle was renamed from the "JCR Quad" to the "
Ho Chi Minh Quad", reflecting student sympathies following the recent end of the
Vietnam War . As a protest against
Apartheid , the students' union passed a motion in 1984 to end every college "bop" (disco) with
The Special AKA 's single ''
Free Nelson Mandela ''. The tradition continues despite Mandela's release in 1990. Wadham also has a reputation as a strong supporter of gay rights, and plays host to "Queer Bop", an annual night of slightly debauched behaviour popular with students of all colleges.
- Waseem Sajjad , two time interim President of Pakistan and Former Chairman Senate.
- Monica Ali , novelist
- Lindsay Anderson , film director
- Charles Badham , classics scholar
- Samuel Augustus Barnett , social reformer
- Robert Blake , Cromwell's admiral
- Richard Bentley , scholar and critic
- Richard Bethell (Lord Westbury), former Lord Chancellor
- Thomas Beecham , conductor
- Melvyn Bragg , television broadcaster
- Alan Bullock , historian of Nazi Germany
- Cecil Day-Lewis , former Poet Laureate
- Andy Cato , of Groove Armada
- John Cooke , prosecutor of Charles I
- Alan Coren , comic writer
- James Flint , writer
- Michael Foot , politician
- Neil Forrester , Artist and subject of The Real World TV show (London series)
- William Fox , premier of New Zealand
- Tim Franks , journalist {Link without Title}
- C. B. Fry , sportsman
- Penaia Ganilau , former Governor General and President of Fiji.
- Neil Gerrard , politician
- Thomas Guidott , physician
- Henry De Beltgens Gibbins , economic historian
- Evan Harris , Liberal Democrat MP for Oxford West And Abingdon
- J. W. Harris , legal scholar, Professor of the London School of Economics and Fellow of the British Academy.
- Sir Thomas Graham Jackson , architect
- Felicity Jones , actress
- Michael Kenyon , novelist
- Francis Kilvert , clergyman and diarist
- Hari Kunzru , novelist
- John Leslie , philosopher
- Tim McInnerny , actor
- Kamisese Mara , former Prime Minister and President of Fiji.
- Patrick Marber , comedian and playwright
- Sharon Mascall , journalist, broadcaster and writer
- Jodhi May , actress
- Robert Moses , city planner
- Arthur Onslow , former Speaker of the House of Commons
- Iain Pears , novelist
- Rosamund Pike , actress
- Michael Rosen , poet and broadcaster
- Mary Ann Sieghart , former assistant editor of '' The Times ''
- John Simon . former Lord Chancellor
- F. E. Smith (Lord Birkenhead), former Lord Chancellor
- Thomas Sprat , Divine and cofounder of the Royal Society
- Rowan Williams , current Archbishop of Canterbury
- John Wilmot, Earl Of Rochester , libertine poet
- Philip M Woodward , mathematician and radar engineer
- Christopher Wren , architect and cofounder of the Royal Society
- Henry Penruddocke Wyndham , politician, topographer and author
- Sir Wadham Wyndham , judge
:See also .
- Alfred Ayer , logical positivist
- T.J. Binyon , Russian literature scholar and crime writer
- Maurice Bowra , scholar and wit
- Terry Eagleton , literary theorist
- John Flemming , economist
- Stuart Hampshire , philosopher and literary critic
- Humphrey Hody , clergyman and divine
- Thomas Graham Jackson , architect
- Frederick Lindemann (Lord Cherwell), Churchill's scientific adviser during the Second World War
- Claus Moser , economist
- Bernard O'Donoghue , poet
- Roger Penrose , mathematician
- Marcus Du Sautoy , mathematician, writer, television presenter
- Robert Thistlethwayte , the warden who fled to France in 1737 after a homosexual scandal
- John Wilkins , scholar and cofounder of the Royal Society
- Robert J.C. Young , post-colonial theorist
- Peter Derow , historian of ancient Greece and Rome
- Jeffrey Hackney , Fellow in Law, legal historian
http://www.wadham.ox.ac.uk
http://su.wadham.ox.ac.uk
http://mcr.wadham.ox.ac.uk/
The Student Room wiki page on Wadham's pros and cons as an undergraduate college
