About Trinity College Gardens, Oxford
Trinity College was founded as a training house for Catholic priests in the sixteenth century. The site of the college, now very much in the city centre, was originally chosen for its quiet, rural aspect. Trinity became a pillar of the Anglican establishment in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and a centre of educational reform in the nineteenth.
The past 100 years have seen great expansion in the numbers of fellows and students, and the college buildings and grounds have steadily changed to meet the evolving needs of the resident community. Today the Trinity College Gardens comprises:
- Front Quad – This quadrangle features a lawn of approximately 2500 square metres on which several specimen trees can be found.
- Fellows’ Garden – This is the private garden for the college’s Fellows, but can be glimpsed through the iron gate.
- Durham Quad – The octagonal lawn sits on a plinth of Portland stone.
- Garden Quad – This quad, the original part of which was designed by Christopher Wren, is often used to host college barbecue events.
- Rear Gardens – 5000 square metres of ornamental lawns on which students and visitors can relax.
- President’s Garden – The private garden of the College President which is surrounded by high stone walls, yew hedges and herbaceous borders.
- The Wilderness – An informally planted garden with a good collection of mature trees.
- Library Quad – Once a rose garden the quad is used primarily for those using the library but becomes a valuable space during the summer ball.
- Rose Arbour – This garden was designed to soften what is an aesthetically-awkward area of the college.
- Lavender Garden – The lavender garden in front of Kettell Hall consists of a square lawn surrounded by Lavandula ‘Munstead’ and topiary box Buxus sempervirens.
