The Quadrangle

The Great Hall

Designed by Edmund Blacket, the Great Hall was built between 1854 and 1862, and officially opened on 18 July 1859.

On this webpage:

• History
• Decorative features on the outside of the Great Hall
• Decorative features on the inside of the Great Hall

Also view a gallery of images of events held in the Great Hall.

Photos are courtesy of the University Secretariat unless otherwise indicated.

History

• Visit the Archives online exhibition on the Great Hall.
• Find out about the Great Hall's 150th anniversary celebrations in September 2009.

Decorative features on the outside of the Great Hall

These include the following:

• bosses on string courses on the front and both side walls.
• coats of arms on the front and both side walls - see one below and view more images.
• dripstones on all three sides - mouldings over doorways, windows, archways, niches, etc, for ornament or to throw off the rain, and commonly terminating with a head, an animal, or other sculptured ornament - see one below and view more images.
• finials - two stone finials at each gable end of the roof - view images.
• gargoyles - unusual, fantastic, mythical or eerie carved creatures - see one below.
• pinnacles - stone pinnacles atop stepped buttresses on all sides of the building - view images.
• sculptures - by Tom Bass of a male and a female figure on the front of the Hall - view images.

Coat of arms of J B Darvall - enlargement.	Carving of Queen Victoria's face at the termination of a dripstone on the Great Hall - enlargement	A gargoyle at the rear of the Great Hall - enlargement

Decorative features on the inside of the Great Hall

These include the following:

• bosses - on a string course around the Great Hall.
• busts - of Arthur Renwick, Peter Nicol Russell, William Montagu Manning and Edward Deas Thomson - view images and information.
• carved angels decorating the hammer beam roof - view images and information.
• coats of arms on the stained glass windows and around the oriel window
• corbels supporting the roof - see one below and view images.
• fireplace - the Tudor fireplace in the south wall is for decoration only.
• floor of veined white and light grey marble (laid in 1874-1875)
• hammer beam roof - find out more from the Archives online exhibition.
• oriel balcony - above the fireplace, providing a view of the Hall from the Senate Room.
• portraits - of former Fellows of Senate who were Chancellor or Vice-Chancellor on the walls of the Hall - view images.
• stained glass windows - the Oxford, Cambridge and Royal windows and eleven smaller side windows - see below and view more images and information.
• statues - of John Henry Challis and William Charles Wentworth - view images and information.
• tapestry - the Gobelin tapestry of Joseph and his Brethren - unveiled for the inauguration of the Great Hall in 1859, initially on loan though subsequently donated by Sir Charles Nicholson - see below and Read "The Travails of a Tapestry", by Dr Ann Stephen.

A corbel bearing the arms of a British university -  enlargement.	Image of Sir Walter Raleigh from the Elizabethan authors & men of affairs stained glass window, photo, copyright Milton Micallef - enlargement.	The Gobelin tapestry of Joseph and his Brethren - enlargement.