{"id":483,"date":"2023-02-01T17:39:07","date_gmt":"2023-02-01T17:39:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.hertford.ox.ac.uk\/library-archives\/?p=483"},"modified":"2025-04-25T11:04:18","modified_gmt":"2025-04-25T10:04:18","slug":"a-very-serviceable-library","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.hertford.ox.ac.uk\/library-archives\/a-very-serviceable-library\/","title":{"rendered":"A Very Serviceable Library"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Hertford’s Library has gradually grown over the past two centuries. As the college prepares for a major library rebuild project<\/a> to create a library fit for the 21st <\/sup>century we look back over some of the key developments in its history.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

1820: Magdalen Hall\u2019s dreadful fire<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Magdalen Hall was based in a site adjacent to Magdalen College on Oxford’s High Street from its foundation in the late 15th<\/sup> century to the early 19th<\/sup> century. A fire in their buildings on the High Street proved the catalyst for its move to Catte Street.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\"Newspaper<\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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\u2018I have just time to inform you, that a dreadful fire broke out in Magdalen Hall…this morning, about three o’clock, which totally consumed the whole range of buildings, consisting of about eighteen sets of rooms, in three hours… No lives were lost. All the furniture, books, &c. destroyed. It is supposed to have originated in the room of a young man over the common rooms\u2026\u2019<\/p>\nSource: Morning Chronicle<\/em>, 11 Jan 1820<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Following this fire, which was caused by a student who left a candle burning and fell asleep, Magdalen Hall moved onto the crumbling Catte Street site of Hertford College (previously Hart Hall). In 1874 Magdalen Hall legally became a college of Oxford University and revived the name Hertford College. In the subsequent 200 years the library collections have moved around the sites as storage requirements and members\u2019 needs have changed. The library has never had a purpose built space on the Catte Street site.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Source: Skelton, Oxonia Antiqua Restaurata <\/em>(1843)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

1908: A new chapel<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Architect T.G. Jackson designed the new chapel, bridge, dining hall and spiral staircase at Hertford in the early 20th <\/sup>century.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On these plans you can see the new chapel design on the right and the small old chapel on the left, which is now the library. Behind the original chapel is a toilet block (now the site of the library staff office)! Initially the old chapel remained as a single large library room, which would have been a very well lit space.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\"Building<\/figure>\n
T.G. Jackson’s architectural drawing for the new Chapel.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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\u2018…Chapel is becoming so famous that the local guides, who used to dismiss Hertford in a single sentence, have found it necessary to add a new speech to their repertoire and to extend their itinerary. This is a mixed blessing, but we may set against it the great though very secular advantages which have resulted from the evacuation of the Old Chapel, which, by the abolition of the ‘horse box’ and the addition of a gallery, has been converted into a very serviceable Library. There is room in it for a surprisingly large number of books, and tables have been provided for the accommodation of readers, who are now admitted at most hours of the day.\u2019 <\/p>\nHertford College Magazine<\/em>, Vol. 1, No. 1 (1910)<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

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\"Architectural
Jackson plan of the original chapel before conversion into the library<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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\"Black
Interior of original Hertford Chapel before it became the library building<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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19th<\/sup> century view of Old Buildings Quad before the building of the new chapel and dining hall<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The Library keeps on growing<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Demand for study space and bookshelves continued right through the 20th<\/sup> century (and still does today). In the 1960s a library extension was built onto the old building. The space, including the old building, was split into two floors, creating a light-filled first floor and a very dark ground floor. Further extensions were added in the basement levels in the nineties and noughties to meet the continued demand for more space. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hertford is planning a library rebuild<\/a> to support many future generations in their academic studies. This project will create additional accessible individual and group study areas, space for the modern book collections, and specialist storage and consultation space for the special collections.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Related posts<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The Early Modern Library<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Treasured Donations<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Resources and links<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Information about our upcoming library renovation project<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rare Books and Archives at Hertford<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hertford Archives\u2019 guide to the history and records of Hart Hall, Magdalen Hall and Hertford College<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The 19th and 20th centuries were a time of great change as Magdalen Hall and the remnants of Hart Hall transformed into the modern day version of Hertford College on the current Catte Street site.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":530,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[23,14,24,26,25],"class_list":["post-483","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-archives","category-rare-books","tag-19th-century","tag-20th-century","tag-chapel","tag-library","tag-magdalen-hall"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/sites.hertford.ox.ac.uk\/library-archives\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2023\/01\/cropped-taunt.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.hertford.ox.ac.uk\/library-archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/483","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.hertford.ox.ac.uk\/library-archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.hertford.ox.ac.uk\/library-archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.hertford.ox.ac.uk\/library-archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.hertford.ox.ac.uk\/library-archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=483"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/sites.hertford.ox.ac.uk\/library-archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/483\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":569,"href":"https:\/\/sites.hertford.ox.ac.uk\/library-archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/483\/revisions\/569"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.hertford.ox.ac.uk\/library-archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/530"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.hertford.ox.ac.uk\/library-archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=483"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.hertford.ox.ac.uk\/library-archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=483"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.hertford.ox.ac.uk\/library-archives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=483"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}