Lady Margaret Hall
College name Lady Margaret Hall
Named after Lady Margaret Beaufort
Established 1878
Sister college Newnham College, Cambridge
Principal Dr Frances Lannon
JCR president Genevieve Clark
Undergraduates 424
MCR president Sylvestre Burgos, Jeremiah Dancy
Graduates 174
Location of Lady Margaret Hall within central OxfordCoordinates: 1°15′15″W / 51.76483°N 1.254036°W / 51.76483; -1.254036
Homepage
Boat club
Lady Margaret Hall is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England, located at the end of Norham Gardens in north Oxford. As of 2006 the college had an estimated financial endowment of £34m.[1]
Lady Margaret Hall accepts both undergraduate and graduate students.
History
Lady Margaret Hall, the first women's college in Oxford, was founded in 1878 and opened its doors to its first nine students the following year. The college was named for Lady Margaret Beaufort, a medieval noblewoman and mother of King Henry VII, known for her exceptional learning and high birth. Its first principal was Elizabeth Wordsworth, a great-niece of the poet William Wordsworth and daughter of Christopher Wordsworth, Bishop of Lincoln. In 1979, along with most of the other women's colleges, LMH admitted men as well as women.
The College
Lady Margaret Hall is one of the few Oxford colleges on the River Cherwell and is known for its lovely gardens set in spacious grounds (about 12 acres (49,000 m2)). The college's original house, now known as Old Old Hall, is still in use. Just behind the main buildings, which are neo-Georgian in style, made from red brick with white trim, are a set of playing fields and tennis courts, as well as a manicured Fellows' Garden, hidden from view by tall hedgerows. Giles Gilbert Scott, famous for designing Liverpool Cathedral and the K2 red telephone box designed the college's Byzantine-style chapel.
In 2005, the architect firm John Simpson and Partners was selected to design a programme of significant developments to the college. The first phase of this programme will be complete in early 2010, with the opening of the new undergraduate building, the Pipe Partridge Building.[2][3] As of 2010[update], undergraduate residents have moved into the building; the ground floor facilities, including a new dining hall and lecture theatre, are still being completed.[4]
In the summer of 2006 the a new law library was constructed beneath the extant library; it was opened in December that year by Cherie Blair.[5]
Members of the college refer to Lady Margaret Hall as LMH. Its colours are yellow, white and blue, and its motto is "Souvent me Souviens", an Old French phrase meaning "I remember often". The bell in the clock above the lodge rings hourly between 08:00 and 22:00.
Notable alumni
- James Allen, Formula One commentator
- Diana Athill, publisher's editor
- Gertrude Bell, writer and diplomat
- Benazir Bhutto, former prime minister of Pakistan
- Nicky Blair, son of former Prime Minister Tony Blair
- Elisabeth Blochmann, educationalist
- Katharine Mary Briggs, writer
- Caryl Churchill, playwright
- Danny Cohen, Controller of BBC Three
- Donal Coonan, presenter
- Lindsey Davis, novelist
- Antonia Fraser, writer
- Michael Gove, politician
- Alethea Hayter, author
- Stephen Hester, RBS CEO
- Baroness Hogg, journalist
- Philip Hollobone, politician
- Eglantyne Jebb, founder of Save the Children
- Bridget Kendall, BBC diplomatic correspondent
- Nigella Lawson, journalist and celebrity television cooking show presenter
- Ann Leslie, journalist
- Josie Long, comedian
- Elizabeth Longford, writer
- Eliza Manningham-Buller, former director general of MI5
- Sujata Manohar, former Judge of the Supreme Court of India
- Lucasta Miller, writer and critic
- Barbara Mills, former Director of Public Prosecutions
- Priscilla Napier, author
- Cathy Newman, Channel 4 News journalist
- H. F. M. Prescott, historian
- Diana Quick, actress
- Johnny Rogan, author and broadcaster
- Marie Slocombe, founder of the BBC Sound Archive
- Matthew Taylor, politician
- Ann Trindade, historian
- Anna Walker, British civil servant
- Baroness Warnock, philosopher
- C. V. Wedgwood, historian
- Samuel West, actor
- Ann Widdecombe, politician
References
- ^ Oxford College Endowment Incomes, 1973-2006 (updated July 2007)
- ^ "Building the LMH of tomorrow". Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford. http://www.lmh-alumni.org/NetCommunity/Page.aspx?pid=261. Retrieved 17 January 2010.
- ^ "New undergraduate building nearly complete". Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford. 14 September 2009. http://www.lmh.ox.ac.uk/News/New-Building-nearly-complete.aspx. Retrieved 17 January 2010.
- ^ "Students take up residence in Pipe Partridge Building". Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford. 12 January 2010. http://www.lmh.ox.ac.uk/News/Students-take-up-residence-in-Pipe-Partridge-Build.aspx. Retrieved 17 January 2010.
- ^ "LMH Library". Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford. http://www.lmh.ox.ac.uk/About-LMH/Virtual-tour/Library.aspx. Retrieved 17 January 2010.
External links
- LMH Home Page – Official Site
- Lady Margaret Hall MCR Website
- Virtual Tour of Lady Margaret Hall
- Archive Photos of Lady Margaret Hall
See also
Former students of Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford
Leadership
Colleges