Green Templeton College, Oxford - The Radcliffe Observatory

The Radcliffe Observatory

Situated at the heart of the College campus, and emblematic of GTC, the Radcliffe Observatory is Green Templeton College's best-known building, and among Oxford's finest too.

The observatory was built to enhance Britain's capability to study cosmological events, such as that of the 1761 transit of Venus.

The astronomer Dr Thomas Hornsby, who observed the transit of Venus across the Sun in 1769, suggested the building of an observatory. Building began in 1772 as planned by the architect Henry Keene, and financed by the estate of Dr John Radcliffe (1652–1714).

However, Keene died in 1776, before the observatory was completed. After his death, it was completed by James Wyatt (1746–1813). Wyatt based his design on the Greek Tower of the Winds.

Atop the Observatory rests the Tower of Winds. Beneath the Tower are three levels, with rooms on each level. The ground floor is today used as the College dining room. The first floor was originally the library, but is now the college's student-fellow Common Room. The third floor is an octagonal observing room, which is now empty except for some of the original furniture.

The Observatory was a functioning observatory from 1773 until its owners, the Radcliffe Trustees, sold it in 1934 to Lord Nuffield, who then presented it to the Radcliffe Hospital. In 1936 Lord Nuffield established the Nuffield Institute for Medical Research there. In 1979 the Nuffield Institute relocated to the John Radcliffe Hospital, and the Observatory was taken over by Green College.