ST. PETER'S HALL
St. Peter's Hall, in New Inn Hall Street, (fn. 1) was
founded in 1928. It comprises three properties—the
parochial buildings of St. Peter-le-Bailey Church, a
Methodist Chapel and School to the north, and part
of old New Inn Hall to the south.
Its situation and associations are interesting. The
hall stands high on 'The Mounts' cast up, probably,
from the digging of the Castle moat, and looks westward, across New Road, to St. George's Tower and
the Castle Motte. Its northern boundary is the old city
wall which at this point, formerly, descended steeply
into the waters of the Castle moat. In the Middle Ages
the land at the north end was Elm Hall, which
was acquired by Oseney in 1270 and was held by
Christ Church until 1796. (fn. 2) In earlier times the lane
which ran within the city walls passed through it, and
Oseney paid to the city 2s. a year for the closed road. (fn. 3)
Next on the south was land which was given to the
city in 1432. (fn. 4) In 1796 Christ Church and the city
agreed to sell their holdings which formed a block
103 yds. from east to west, 66 yds. on the east side and
86 yds. on the west side. The southern half of this was
acquired by the Oxford Canal Company, and the northern half by the Wesleyans. Next on the south was a
property called Rose Hall, which was given to New
College by William of Wykeham. It was not an
Academic Hall at that time, and soon it was nothing
but a garden. In later times New College built two
houses on the site, and in 1819 it was recorded that it
measured 75 ft. north to south, and 99 ft. east to west,
being bounded by the road on the east and land
belonging to the Oxford Canal Company on the west; (fn. 5)
New College sold it in two parts in 1859 and 1868,
and Canon Henry Linton acquired both as a site for
the new St. Peter-le-Bailey Church. Southward again
was Trilleck's Inn or New Inn Hall, which measured
about 60 yds. each way; it must have been formed by
the union of several tenements about 1300. At a very
early time a lane, known as Pennard's Lane, passed
through it, no doubt the continuation of Sewy's Lane,
and in 1392 and subsequently it is recorded that the
city received 2s. a year for the closing of the lane. (fn. 6)
The greater part of this extent of land passed into the
possession of St. Peter's Hall in the following way. In
1817, on the raised ground within the wall, was built
the Methodist Chapel which replaced the Meeting
House, across New Inn Hall St., where John Wesley
himself used to preach. (fn. 7) This chapel, superesed by
the Wesley Memorial Church built upon the street in
1878, was acquired by St. Peter's and converted into
a lecture room and rooms for undergraduates in 1933:
the school behind it (erected 1831) was pulled down
in 1929. Thence St. Peter's extends southward, the
Rectory and Church of St. Peter-le-Bailey and the
remaining part of New Inn Hall forming its frontage
along New Inn Hall St. Behind, as far back as Bulwark's Lane, are two quadrangles composed of new
blocks of buildings for the accommodation of undergraduates. One of them, the Emily Morris building,
was given by Lord Nuffield and commemorates his
mother. They are of multi-coloured red-brick, with
stone facings, in the neo-Georgian style; and were
designed by Mr. Fielding Dodd, with Sir Herbert
Baker, R.A., as consulting architect. Of the older
stone buildings on the street, the entrance to the hall,
with the library above, is a severe Georgian residence
built in 1797 by the Oxford Canal Company for their
offices, and named Wyaston House. It was bought in
1878 by Canon Henry Linton to be the rectory of the
church, and now bears the name of its donor. Next to
Linton House comes the parish church itself, which
in term time is used as the chapel of the hall. This is a
Gothic building, of good proportions, built in 1874
to the design of Mr. Basil Champneys, his first work in
Oxford. The church looks older than its age because
a large proportion of its stones came from a former
St. Peter's which stood at the corner of New Inn Hall
Street and New Road (where is now a public garden)
until it was demolished for street widening. The ancient
foundation of St. Peter-le-Bailey also explains the
interesting brasses, monuments, and furniture which the
church contains. For example, a tablet (1667) by Simon
White commemorates William Northern, a Mayor of
Oxford, who attended the coronation of Richard II;
and preserved in the wall of the tower-porch are some
corbels and mouldings from the Norman church that
served the parish in the 12th century. Shortly after the
founding of the hall, the pulpit and reredos (beautiful
examples of the work of the late Mr. F. E. Howard)
were given in memory of Bishop Chavasse and his
wife. Dr. F. J. Chavasse (1846–1928) had been
rector of St. Peter-le-Bailey from 1879 to 1899. When
he resigned the diocese of Liverpool in 1923, he
retired to his old rectory which was vacant, as the
living was held in plurality with St. Ebbe's from 1914
to 1926. On his return to Oxford he found a church
becoming derelict and bereft of parishioners, whose
homes had been converted into offices and shops.
Nothing daunted, he conceived the idea of turning
this extensive parochial property into a hall, urgently
demanded by the growth of the University; and one,
moreover, which by its low fees would make an Oxford
course possible for poor men, especially candidates for
Holy Orders. On his death in 1928 his project
became his memorial, to perpetuate the tradition of
his teaching and influence in Oxford; and the founder
of St. Peter's Hall is commemorated in his old church
by a replica of his memorial bas-relief on the back of
the episcopal throne in Liverpool Cathedral.
Southward, again, a pair of wrought-iron gates
connects the church with a classical building called
Hannington Hall, containing the dining-hall and
common room of St. Peter's. This is the only surviving
part of New Inn Hall, whose history goes back to
the 14th century. Vertue's allegorical picture for the
Oxford Almanack of 1750 portrays the origin of the
hall, and shows how Trilleck's Inn for students passed
(through the executors of Bishop John Trilleck of
Hereford and his brother, Bishop Thomas of Rochester) into the hands of William of Wykeham, who
conveyed it and other adjoining properties to New
College in 1392. After having been used by Cistercian
students for some years about 1400 to 1420, the hall
was entirely rebuilt shortly before 1476–so gaining
its name of the New Inn. (fn. 8) Thenceforth the hall became
noted for its jurists, as, for example, Alberico Gentili
(1552–1608), Regius Professor of Civil Law, and 'the
first writer of a work which can properly be called a
work on international law'; Sir Daniel Dunne, D.C.L.,
the first burgess elected to represent the University in
Parliament, and Principal of the hall (1580–1); and
another Principal (1609–14), Dr. John Budden,
Regius Professor of Civil Law. Students, however,
did not abound at the hall till Christopher Rogers, 'a
noted Puritan', and rector of St. Peter-le-Bailey (where
the hall worshipped from 1455 to 1868), (fn. 9) became
Principal in 1626 and matriculated as many as 40
members a year. In his time New Inn Hall and
Magdalen Hall were known as 'the two nests of Precisians and Puritans'. The Principal and students fled
when Charles I made Oxford his headquarters during
the Civil War, and the vacated hall was used as the royal
mint for melting down the plate given up by the
colleges in the service of their king (1642–6). On the
settings up of the Commonwealth, Mr. Rogers returned
together with his 'Seekers'—that is, those who, in their
turn, were waiting for the expulsion of loyalists. (fn. 10)
After the Restoration the Hall gradually became little
more than the sinecure of Principals who were eminent
jurists, such as the Rev. William Stone, B.C.L. (1663–84), who founded the almshouses in St. Clement's;
Sir William Blackstone, D.C.L. (1761–6); Sir Robert
Chambers (1766–1803), who was a judge in India
(1774–99) while still retaining his principalship; and
Dr. James Blackstone (1803–31). Mention of Sir
Robert Chambers recalls Lord Eldon's reminiscence of
a walk in the garden of the hall, with the Principal and
Dr. Johnson. Dr. Johnson was a close friend of Sir
Robert and stayed frequently with him at Oxford. On
this occasion the doctor reproached his friend for his
'unmanerly and unneighbourly conduct' in gathering
snails and throwing them over the wall. 'Sir,' said Sir
Robert, 'my neighbour is a Dissenter.' 'Oh!' said the
doctor, 'if so, Chambers, toss away, toss away, as hard
as you can.' (fn. 11)
With the advent of Dr. John Anthony Cramer
(Principal 1831–47) the fortunes of the hall took their
last turn upward. Dr. Cramer was Regius Professor
of History, Public Orator, and afterwards Dean of
Carlisle; and he 'erected at his own expense a fair
mansion of freestone for the accommodation of
academical students'. (fn. 12) When in 1887 (Under a
statute for the suppression of halls made in 1881) New
Inn Hall was united with Balliol, the latter sold the
Principal's Lodgings (the older part of the hall) to
the city, who pulled it down to build a school. Cramer's
building, however, survived. It was purchased by
public subscription raised by the Rev. and Hon. W.
Talbot Rice, rector of St. Peter-le-Bailey, and reconstructed in 1897 to form a large hall in memory of
James Hannington, the first Bishop of Eastern Equatorial Africa, who was killed by savages in 1855. Mr.
Talbot Rice also bought the land behind, and built
upon it a parochial school. Both these properties
were conveyed to the Trustees of St. Peter's Hall in
1928; and, while the Church School disappeared,
Hannington Hall, after complete remodelling, became
the dining hall of St. Peter's. On its panelled walls
hang, beside a portrait of the founder (1929), another
(1937) by the late Mr. Philip de László of Lord
Nuffield, the benefactor of the hall; and a third (1938)
by Mr. Oswald Birley of the first Master, the Rev.
C. M. Chavasse, the founder's son, later Bishop of Rochester.
St. Peter's Hall was opened as a Permanent Private
Hall in October 1929; a small nucleus of undergraduates had already been in residence for one year as
non-collegiate students in what was then called St.
Peter's House. By 1933 there were 90 undergraduates, by 1950 over 150. In October 1947, by decree
of Convocation, St. Peter's Hall was granted the status of a New Foundation.