Wadham College

Founded in 1610 on the bequest of Nicholas Wadham, Wadham College is considered to be a notable example of Jacobean architecture. Situated right in the heart of Oxford, Wadham is considered one of the University’s more liberal colleges, for a number of reasons. Wadham was among the first colleges to admit women (in 1974), and the college has a strong reputation as a promoter of gay rights; in 2011 it became the first Oxford college to fly the rainbow flag as part of ‘Queer Week’.

Throughout the years Wadham College hosted a a range of talented and influential students such as:

• Actor Rowan Williams
• the Labour Leader Michael Mackintosh Foot
• the Anglo-Irish poet and the Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom Cecil Day-Lewis
• the English actress and protagonist of Gone Girl, Rosamund Pike

Additinally, Wadham is particularly famous for its connection to renowned 17th-century architect Sir Christopher Wren. Wren studied for an undergraduate degree at Wadham, before becoming a Fellow at All Souls College. During his time as an undergraduate, Wren became close with John Wilkins, Warden of Wadham College, and it was in the college that the two would meet a number of other young philosophers, mathematicians and physicians to form a group that would later go on to found The Royal Society in London.

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