Protect the past. Prepare for the future.
Turl St entrance: timeless. Turl St plumbing: of its time.
Should you study at Exeter College, University of Oxford, you will reside in the beautiful, medieval Turl St site. Your bedroom will probably be 300 years old however, and the radiators have a mind of their own.
You will walk in the storied footsteps of some of the greatest literary minds: Philip Pullman, Alan Bennett, and J. R. R. Tolkien. That said, there’s not much of the furnishings they wouldn’t recognise. Including the boilers.
Exeter is breath-taking. Life-changing. Magic. But you’ll need to wear your coat to dinner. And maybe gloves.
We are the custodians of a national treasure.
A beautiful, historic site that has served as home to some of the world’s brightest and most talented people for centuries. There’s only a handful of places like us in the world.
Hey, we said like us.
And, one day, we will be the long-before predecessors of a new generation.
What kind of story will they tell about us?
“They really let the place fall apart – even then it needed renewing and protecting. A lot of the ancient site is honestly beyond repair, so, we’ve had to block it off. What a loss – so few places like this remain in the world. And even fewer where people can live and grow, if only for a little while.”
We like this story best.
“In the 2020s, despite the historic events they found themselves in, they pulled off something remarkable. They knew they had to protect what was – even then – an ancient site, while building for a future that they couldn’t possibly have imagined. And they knew that a college can’t stand still – it must evolve and renew itself to remain an inspiring, sustainable home for generations to come. They did it all: preserving Exeter’s heritage while creating a comfortable, inspiring home for the centuries that followed.”
Exeter doesn’t stand still.
We look forward, while looking our age.