Architecture
Blue Boar Quadrangle was built on the site of an old car park and garages, next to the narrow, high-walled Blue Boar Street. The quadrangle was designed so that the top floor penthouses provide a broken, set-back series of horizontal planes that help to reduce the scale of the development seen from the street and is constructed almost entirely of characteristic Portland Whitbed and Roach Stone, which adds a unique quality absent from most 1960s developments. The quad itself is an 'L' shape, the rectangular nature being interrupted by the old college brewhouse. Most of the staircases are four storeys, with 'penthouses' occupied by tutors at the very top. Staircase four is three storeys with a semi-basement, which houses archives and a meeting room. There is also a new route from the path to Tom Quad which loops back behind Killcanon and brings you straight into the middle of the Blue Boar Quad. This is for students only, but is repeatedly defied by tourists in an attempt to see Oxford Students in their natural habitat. The route is slightly longer than going through Killcanon but decidedly more aesthetically pleasing.
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