Green Templeton College

Green Templeton is not a college most visitors will seek out, and that's fine — it's a graduate college formed in 2008 from the merger of Green College and Templeton College, focused on management, medicine, and social sciences. But it does contain one notable building: the Radcliffe Observatory, an 18th-century tower modelled on the Tower of the Winds in Athens, completed in 1773. It's a notable Georgian structure in Oxford and almost nobody visits it.

The college sits on Woodstock Road at the edge of the Radcliffe Observatory Quarter, the university's major science district redevelopment. The grounds are pleasant if unexceptional, and there's no medieval atmosphere to speak of. If you're already walking up Woodstock Road to the Ashmolean's annexe or heading toward North Oxford, it's worth a quick look. Otherwise, this is strictly for architecture enthusiasts or people with a specific reason to be here.

What makes it special

The Radcliffe Observatory is the draw. The octagonal tower, topped with sculptures of Atlas and Hercules, is distinctive and represents a period of Oxford architecture that most visitors never encounter — Georgian scientific grandeur rather than medieval ecclesiastical gloom. The building is now used as a common room and event space, so access depends on what's happening.

Visitor info

Green Templeton doesn't have regular visitor hours in the way the older colleges do. The grounds are sometimes accessible during the day, but the Observatory itself is only open during specific events or by arrangement. Check the college website before making a special trip. It's a 15-minute walk from the city centre up Woodstock Road.