Private halls of the University of Oxford

The private halls of the University of Oxford were educational institutions within the University. They were introduced by the statute De aulis privatis ("On private halls") in 1855 to provide a less expensive alternative to the colleges and academic halls of the early nineteenth century. They survived until 1918, when the last two private halls were recognised as permanent private halls.

History

In 1850 the prime minister, Lord John Russell, asked a Royal Commission to investigate the University of Oxford;[1] however the Earl of Derby had taken over as prime minister by the time the commissioners published their report in 1852.[2] The commissioners' report found that potential students were deterred by the cost of living in one of the existing colleges or halls of the university as required by the university statutes of the time. It therefore recommended that the university should be allowed to expand by opening new halls of residence and by allowing students to live in lodgings not connected to the existing colleges or halls.[3] A proposal allowing MAs of the University to open private halls was included in the Oxford University Act 1854, and the university accordingly issued its statute de aulis privatis in 1855. The statute allowed MAs of the university over the age of twenty-eight with the approval of the vice-chancellor to open private halls within one and a half miles of Carfax as “licensed masters”.[4] In the period 1855 to 1918 thirteen such halls were established. The longest lived was Charsley's Hall.[5]

The Universities Tests Act 1871 allowed Catholics and dissenters to take degrees at the university (apart from theology); however a papal decree forbidding Catholics studying at Oxford or Cambridge was not withdrawn until 1895.[6] Shortly afterwards, the Jesuits opened Clarke's Hall (1896) and the Benedictines Hunter-Blair's Hall (1899). In 1918 a university statute was issued allowing the only two remaining private halls to become permanent private halls as Campion Hall and St Benet's Hall.[5]

List of private halls
Name Master Dates Notes
Addis' Hall[7] William Edward Addis 1900–1910 attached to Manchester College
Benson's Hall[8] Richard Meux Benson c. 1868 attached to the Society of St John the Evangelist
Butler's Hall[9] George Butler 1855–1858
Charsley's Hall[10] William Henry Charsley 1862–1891 became Marcon's Hall
Clarke's Hall[11] Richard Clarke 1896–1900 now Campion Hall
Grindle's Hall[12] Edward Samuel Grindle from 1891
Hunter Blair's Hall[13] Oswald Hunter Blair 1898–1909 now St Benet's Hall
Litton's Hall[14] Edward Arthur Litton 1855–1860 evangelical
Marcon's Hall[15] Charles Abdy Marcon 1892–1918 previously Charsley's Hall
Parker's Hall[13] Anselm Parker 1909–1918 now St Benet's Hall
Plater's Hall[11] Charles Plater 1915–1918 now Campion Hall
Pope's Hall[13] O'Fallon Pope 1900–1915 now Campion Hall
Turrell's Hall[15] Henry Joseph Turrell from 1880

References
  1. Brockliss 2016, pp. 349.
  2. Brockliss 2016, pp. 351.
  3. Brockliss 2016, pp. 353.
  4. Ward, W. R. (1965). Victorian Oxford. Routledge. pp. 202–203.
  5. Hibbert, Christopher, ed. (1988). Private halls. The Encyclopaedia of Oxford. Macmillan. pp. 337–338.
  6. Rogers, Nicholas. Catholics in Cambridge. p. 262.
  7. Storey, Graham (2014). A Preface to Hopkins. Routledge. p. 194. Retrieved 2020-01-06.
  8. Nash, James (1999). "The New People of East Oxford: The Suburbanisation of Cowley, 1851-91" (PDF). Oxoniensia. 63: 140.
  9. Aldrich, Richard; Gordon, Peter (2016). "Butler, George (1819–1890)". Dictionary of British Educationists. Routledge. Retrieved 2020-01-06.
  10. Hibbert, Christopher (1988). "Private halls". The Encyclopaedia of Oxford. London: Macmillan. p. 337.
  11. "Campion Hall". A History of the County of Oxford: Volume 3, the University of Oxford. Victoria County History. pp. 339–340. Retrieved 7 September 2018.
  12. "Grindle's Hall". Oxford University Gazette. Vol. 21. 1891. p. 559.
  13. "St Benet's Hall". A History of the County of Oxford: Volume 3, the University of Oxford. Victoria County History. pp. 340–341. Retrieved 7 September 2018.
  14. Scotland, Nigel (2004). Evangelical Anglicans in a Revolutionary Age, 1789-1901. Carlisle: :Paternoster. p. 257.
  15. Brock & Curthoys 2000, pp. 120.

Sources
  • Brock, Michael G.; Curthoys, Mark C., eds. (2000). The History of the University of Oxford. 7: Nineteenth-Century part 2. Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780199510177.
  • Brockliss, L.W.B. (2016). The University of Oxford: A History. Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199243563.001.0001. ISBN 9780199243563.
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