THE RADCLIFFE CAMERA
At least two years before the death of Dr. John Radcliffe in 1714 it was known that he intended to build
a library in Oxford, and it was thought that the new
building would take the form of an extension westwards
of the Selden End of the Bodleian. According to
Francis Atterbury, Dean of Christ Church, a room,
90 ft. long, was to be built on ground belonging to
Exeter College, the lower story of which was to be a
library for the college and the upper Radcliffe's
Library. (fn. 1) Plans for such a building were, in fact,
prepared by Nicholas Hawksmoor, and are now preserved in the Ashmolean Museum. But Radcliffe's
will, proved on 8 December 1714, stated quite clearly
his intention that his library should be built in the position it now occupies. The relevant portion reads thus:
And will that my executors pay forty thousand pounds in
the terme of ten years, by yearly payments of four thousand
pounds, the first payment thereof to begin and be made after
the decease of my said two sisters for the building a library
in Oxford and the purchaseing the house the houses [sic]
between St Maries and the scholes in Catstreet where I
intend the Library to be built, and when the said Library
is built I give one hundred and fifty pounds per annum for
ever to the Library Keeper thereof for the time being and
one hundred pounds a year per annum for ever for buying
books for the same Library.
The ground required for the library was occupied
in 1714 by a number of tenement houses fronting
Cat Street the most northerly of which was built right
on to the Schools, some gardens and outbuildings belonging to Brasenose College, and Black Hall. (fn. 2) A number of other colleges were involved in the ownership of
'on account of ye building of ye new Print
House'. It may be added that 14 'Designs
of Printing and Town Houses of Oxford by
Mr. Hawksmoor' were among the drawings offered for sale after Hawksmoor's
death (B.M., S.C. 426).
the site, and an additional complication arose from the
fact that Brasenose required an equal amount of ground
fronting High St. in return for that which they were
being asked to relinquish. The Trustees had, therefore,
to treat also with the tenants of the houses and the
owners of the land for which Brasenose was asking in
compensation. In 1720 an Act of Parliament was
passed to enable any corporations within the University
to sell ground for building a library. The protracted
negotiations for acquiring the Cat Street site occupied
the Radcliffe Trustees for just over twenty years and
at length on 17 May 1737, the foundation stone of the
new library was laid.
The Trustees had begun to think of the choice of an
architect as early as 1720. Wren, Vanbrugh, Thornhill, Archer, James, Hawksmoor, and Gibbs were all
considered, but it was not until 1734 that the last two
were actually invited to submit plans. Hawksmoor
produced a wooden model of his proposed building,
which is still preserved in the Bodleian, but the plans
of James Gibbs were finally selected and the work
entrusted to him. (fn. 3) The Minute Books of the Trustees
and the Building Book, which have been preserved, contain very full details of the progress of the building and
of the craftsmen employed upon it, which supplement
the information given in Gibbs's own work Bibliotheca
Radcliviana. In it he states: 'Mr. William Townsend
of Oxford, and Mr. William Smith of Warwick, were
employed to be masons; Mr. John Philipps to be the
carpenter and joiner; Mr. George Devall to be
plumber; Mr. Townsend junior to be stone carver;
Mr. Linel of Long-acre, London, to be carver in wood;
Mr. Artari, an Italian, to be their plaisterer in the fret
work way; Mr. Michael Rysbrack to be sculptor, to cut
the Doctor's figure in marble; and Mr. Blockley to be
locksmith.' In actual fact Francis Smith, the father of
William, was originally chosen as one of the masons,
but he died in 1738 and was succeeded by his son
almost at the beginning of building operations. Likewise, John Townesend succeeded his father on the
latter's death in 1739. (fn. 4)
The building, the earliest example in England of a
circular library, consists of three main stages and of two
stories internally, the upper one containing a gallery.
It is of Headington and Burford stone, ashlar faced,
and is finished with a lead-covered dome and cupola.
The original intention was to construct a stone dome,
but the design was changed after 5 ft. 8 in. of the stonework had been built, which had to be removed. The
ground-stage is rusticated and has a series of eight pedimented projections, the cornices of which are carried
round the building. The main stage is divided into
bays by coupled Corinthian columns supporting the
main entablature. This, in turn, is surmounted by a
balustraded parapet with vases. The interior walls and
dome were originally distempered but this has since
been removed, revealing the fact that all the decoration
up to the uppermost cornice is carved in stone. The
decorative work of the dome alone is of plaster. (fn. 5)
Although the building was completed in 1748, a
librarian appointed, and also a porter, who was to be
equipped with a gown and a staff and have a salary of
£20 per annum, the opening ceremony did not take
place until 13 April 1749. The new library was from
the first known as the Physic Library, 'being to consist
of all Sorts of Books belonging to the Science of Physic,
as Anatomy, Botany, Surgery, and Philosophy', (fn. 6) but the
accessions it received during the first sixty years of its
existence bore little relation to this description, and it
was not until 1811 that its intake was confined to works
of a scientific nature. Accessions to the library did not,
however, consist entirely of books. During the first
half of the 19th century it became the home for coins,
marbles, candelabra, busts, plaster casts, and statues,
but in recent years most of these have been placed in
other repositories more suited to their proper care and
display.
The basement story was originally an open arcade
with a vaulted stone ceiling, bearing in the centre
Radcliffe's coat of arms. The arches of the arcade were
filled by iron grilles, three of which were in the form
of gates which were closed at night, and through which
access was gained to the library by way of the grand
staircase. These grilles still remain. The glazing of the
arches, the construction of a new north entrance where
once was a circular window, and the addition of the
stone steps leading up to it, were carried out in 1863
when the building had become a reading-room of the
Bodleian. In 1854 the library was, for the first time,
properly warmed and lighted. Hitherto a very indifferent system of lighting and heating the gallery by
gas had been in operation since 1835. Between 1909
and 1912 an underground bookstore of two floors was
constructed beneath the north lawn of the library, and
a tunnel connecting it with the Bodleian, thus at last
unobtrusively linking the two buildings, a project
which had been envisaged by Henry Wentworth Acland
in his Report to the Radcliffe Trustees in 1861, when he
advocated a covered arcade across Radcliffe Square.
Both stories of the library are now used as readingrooms of the Bodleian, the freehold of the building with
adjoining land having been transferred by the Radcliffe
Trustees to the University in 1927. The interior of
the upper reading-room is graced by Rysbrack's statue
of Dr. Radcliffe in marble, 6 ft. high, the carving of
which cost £220.
The ground around the library was originally partly
paved, partly cobbled, and partly gravelled. (fn. 7) In 1751
the perimeter was defined by stone posts and obelisks
surmounted by lamps. These, with the exception of
three which still survive at the entrance to Brasenose
Lane, were probably removed in 1827 when the lawns
were laid down and the iron railings erected. The latter
were removed in 1936, thereby much enhancing the
appearance of the noble building they had encircled
for over 100 years. (fn. 8)