Worcester College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom.
History
The college was founded in 1714 on the site of a former medieval university building, Gloucester College, an ancient Benedictine house founded in 1283, which was suppressed under the dissolution of the monasteries in 1539. After falling into near ruin and suffering from steady decline, the College was refounded in 1714 by a Worcestershire baronet, Sir Thomas Cookes. Even then, there were only sufficient funds to rebuild the Chapel, Hall and Library and the north side of the Front Quad, known as the 'Terrace'. On the South side of the Quad, the 'Cottages' remain from the medieval period, as does the 'Pump Quad', leaving a charming mixture of architecture. The gardens are the most extensive and among the most beautiful of any Oxford college, and contain not only the college's playing fields, making it the only college to have them on site, but also a lake. The Chapel, redesigned in the Victorian period by William Burges , is highly unusual and decorative; being predominantly pink (the College colours are pink and black), the pews are decorated with carved animals, including kangaroos and whales, and the walls are riotously colourful, and include frescoes of dodos and peacocks.
Notable Former Students
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