University Church of St Mary the Virgin

The University Church of St Mary the Virgin, known affectionately as St Mary's or simply SMV, stands on the north side of the High Street in the very heart of Oxford. It is one of the most important churches in England, for it was the centre from which the University of Oxford itself grew: in the early days of the university its congregation met here, and the church became the seat of university government, the place where lectures were given and degrees awarded. With its 13th-century tower, its spire — claimed by some to be one of the most beautiful in England — and its eccentric Baroque porch facing the High Street, St Mary's is also one of the most beautiful churches in the city, and a building bound up with some of the great events of English religious history.

A church was established on this site, at the centre of the old walled city of Oxford, in Anglo-Saxon times, and it is recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086. As the University of Oxford began to take shape in the thirteenth century, St Mary's became, in effect, its first home: the university's congregation met here from at least 1252, and by the early thirteenth century the church was the seat of university government, used for lectures, disputations and the award of degrees. Around 1320 a two-storey building was added to the north side of the chancel; the ground floor — now the Vaults café — became the Convocation House, where the university's parliament met, while the upper storey housed the books bequeathed by Thomas Cobham, Bishop of Worcester, which formed the very first University Library, the ancestor of the great Bodleian Library nearby.

The church's fortunes became entwined with those of one of Oxford's colleges. When Adam de Brome became rector in 1320, he founded what would become Oriel College, refounded under the patronage of King Edward II, and diverted the revenues of the church to his new college. Architecturally, the church grew over the centuries: the tower dates from around 1280 and the elegant spire from the early fourteenth century, while the nave and chancel were rebuilt in the Perpendicular Gothic style in the late fifteenth century. The famous south porch on the High Street, with its twisted "barley-sugar" columns and exuberant Baroque design, was added in 1637 to the designs of Nicholas Stone — a startling and delightful contrast to the Gothic church behind it.

St Mary's has been the setting for momentous events. In 1555, during the persecutions under Queen Mary I, the Oxford Martyrs — the bishops Hugh Latimer and Nicholas Ridley, and Archbishop Thomas Cranmer — were tried for heresy in the church; Cranmer was made to stand on a raised platform to hear the reasons why he must die, before he and his fellows were burnt at the stake just outside, on what is now Broad Street, an event commemorated by the Martyrs' Memorial. In the eighteenth century John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, often attended and, as a Fellow of Lincoln College, preached sermons here. And in the nineteenth century St Mary's became the cradle of the Oxford Movement: John Henry Newman became vicar in 1828, and his sermons drew crowds of undergraduates, while from the church's pulpit John Keble preached his Assize Sermon on 14 July 1833 — an event traditionally regarded as the beginning of the Oxford Movement, the great attempt to revive Catholic spirituality within the Church of England, whose influence spread far beyond Oxford.

Today St Mary's continues as an active Anglican parish church in the Diocese of Oxford, while remaining the official church of the University of Oxford, where the university sermon is still preached. It is also one of the most popular visitor attractions in the city: its thirteenth-century tower is open to the public, and the climb to the top is rewarded with one of the finest views in Oxford, looking down on Radcliffe Square, the great domed Radcliffe Camera, Brasenose College and All Souls. With its history, its architecture and its place at the heart of the university, St Mary's is one of the essential buildings of Oxford.

The church stands on the High Street in the centre of Oxford, with Radcliffe Square and the Radcliffe Camera to the north and the colleges of the university all around. The Bodleian Library, the Sheldonian Theatre, Brasenose, All Souls and Oriel Colleges, the covered market and the High Street itself are all close at hand, with the meadows and rivers of Oxford and the surrounding countryside within easy reach.

From its Anglo-Saxon foundation at the heart of the walled city, through its central role in the birth of the University of Oxford, the first university library, the trial of the Oxford Martyrs in 1555, and the preaching of Keble and Newman that launched the Oxford Movement, the University Church of St Mary the Virgin gathers many centuries of English religious and academic history into one building. A Gothic church with a beautiful spire and a famous Baroque porch, and the very cradle of the University of Oxford, it remains the living university church at the heart of the city — one of the most historic churches in England.