Exeter College has been situated on its original site bordered by Turl Street, Broad Street, and Brasenose Lane.  This has been since 1312 when the first of many Halls was purchased by Walter de Stapeldon and Fellows of Exeter College from 1240 until the period 1470. For a map of where these Halls were please look at section EC/1/1. The buildings have continually been improved, rebuilt or torn down to make way for new buildings to increase expansion as the college has grown. There have also been extensive changes to the landscape both inside and outside the college, and in the twentieth-twenty first century, new buildings have been purchased for student accommodation and additional teaching space, the most recent of these being Cohen Quadrangle.

The earliest section of the college that still survives to this day is Palmer's Tower [1432]. This was the original gate tower which was just outside the Oxford city wall. 

The current College Hall, with underground storage which is now the undercroft bar, was built in 1618 but has been refurbished since, the most notable addition being the inclusion of the memorial stained-glass windows in 1914 which are still there.

Both the Chapel and the Library have had various different editions over the years but the current buildings were designed by George Gilbert Scott. The Library opened in 1857 and the Chapel in 1859. For more details about the building, extensions and refurbishments of both the Library and Chapel please look at files EC/10/7 and EC/11/4 respectively.

There have been a number of appropriations of different vicarages and estates around Britain, but for further details of these properties please look at sub-section EC/5 Estates.

A full timeline of the purchase of these halls, extensions and refurbishments can be seen within this guide.

EC/9/1 Early Halls

A large series of deeds to Halls around the Exeter College site that were either bequeathed or transferred. The earliest of these halls was St Stephen's Hall which was soon demolished to make way for the building of Stapeldon hall on the site. Transcripts of a large amount of these deeds can be found in a separate ledger of College Evidences.

EC/9/2 Surveys

This small series contains an interesting survey of the buildings of Exeter College. The main survey book was originally compiled by Rector John Prideaux in 1631 in Latin, with a partial transcription a century later by Rector Thomas Stinton. The other section contains twentieth century surveys on frescoes and murals discovered during refurbishment.

EC/9/3 Building Accounts

One account book and some account sheets for monies received for building works around Exeter College during the Eighteenth century. These books should be consulted in conjunction with the Benefactors book of 1703 commissioned by the Rector William Paynter under reference EC/6/1/2.

EC/9/4 College site engravings

A series of engravings showing various aspects of Exeter College. The earliest in the folder is the 1675 engraving by David Loggan of a view of Exeter College. In 1669, Loggan was appointed "public sculptor" to the University of Oxford. He proceeded to draw and engrave all the Oxford colleges in bird's eye views. His folio Oxonia illustrata was published in 1675.

EC/9/5 Quad Structure

The following description of the college site is taken from the book Founders and Fellowship by John Maddicott:

In the beginning Exeter College occupied a very small part of its present site. But during the next 175 years between Walter de Stapeldon's death and the start of the sixteenth century, the site's history was one of continuous expansion, so that by the end of the period its boundaries similar to, though by no mean identical with those of the modern college. p139

From west to east ran the original Oxford city wall, where Broad Street is currently now, and just inside was a small lane called Somenor's Lane, which was sometimes referred to Summer Lane in later years. Palmer's Tower was the original College's main gate from 1430, so that the college faced north towards this wall, rather than now facing west with its main entrance from Turl Street. At the east side, behind the present day Sheldonian Theatre the lane joined Schools street. This ran through the present-day Divinity school building and then past the front of Brasenose College. 

EC/9/6 Sports Pavilion

From a donation of £2,000.00 received from Robert Cluett III, a Williams College student in 1929, the first Sports Pavilion began to be built, from original designs by T Harold Hughes. Exeter had previously bought a new field in Marston from Oxford University in 1924 and had it laid out for rugby, hockey, cricket, football and eventually tennis. The field held it's first cricket match on 2 May 1925 between present and past college members, but required a pavilion for members to change in or to rest. In 1960-61 a squash court was added, but is used less, mainly because many sports are provided for at the University wide Iffley Road Sports Centre. It is worth noting that at this site in 1954, Sir Roger Bannister, an Exeter College Alumni, broke the world record for running a mile in 3 minutes, 59 seconds.

EC/9/7 Boat club

From the mid-19th century the headquarters of the Boat Club had been on the College Barge moored on the Cherwell. After several different College Barges, and ongoing costs to repair or replace them, the need for a new Boathouse came about in 1939. Through an agreement with Christchurch a series of nine sites on the island site between Old Cherwell and the New cut were leased to colleges, Exeter being one of them having site 5. However, it took until 1956 before an agreement was made to build a permanent Boathouse, in collaboration with Brasenose College. Bridgewater and Shepheard were the architects and work began around 1959 but this was not completed until a year later. The total cost of the Boathouse was £890.00, partly paid for by members of the Amalgamated club, but also with a loan from the Ministry of Agriculture and Sport.

EC/9/8 Rector's Lodge

In the 1560s the Tudor statesman Sir William Petre and the new Rector, re-endowed the college and provided new statutes to mark a new role as Exeter College to education the sons of West Country gentry and clergy. From this period the Rector lived in lodgings which formed part of Palmer's Tower the original gatehouse, along with a country house as part of the large rectory at Kidlington. The original gatehouse changed in 1606 when Oxford city leased Somener or Summer lane just outside it to Exeter College. Rector John Prideaux built the first block on the new site, beyond the road and town wall in the old half-filled in town ditch in 1614. The Rectors lodgings was completely demolished though when George Gilbert Scott's ambitious architectural restructure of the college began. Starting with the re-building of the current Chapel between 1855-1859 he wished to include an apse. Because of space, this meant replacing the Rector's lodge and reducing its size. The lodgings were rebuilt north of Palmer's Tower and a new second quadrangle was completed over the summer of 1850. By the 1940s, the College wished to refurbish and extend the lodge, particularly as the new Rector Eric Arthur Barber had a large family who needed to be accommodated. T. Harold Hughes was given the task which was re-modelled during 1943-1949. This version of the Rectors lodge is the building seen today. Not only did his work include expansion of the Lodge, but also provided additional lecture spaces and lodgings such as the basement servants’ hall which became a Law Library, which is now the Quarrell room. A new staircase was inserted into Palmer's Tower providing access to the lodgings which were converted into rooms for resident fellows and undergraduates. 

EC/9/9 Fellow's Garden

This space has had several changes over years, some due to fashions but others due to the proximity of the Bodleian Libraries, and Divinity School. The first view of the Fellows Garden is from the engraving by David Loggan in 1675, that shows a short formal garden laid out in geometric hedges. The garden was then re-ordered between 1731-1734, under the direction of Rector John Coneybeare. The next major phase of development of the gardens began in 1790s when the current pathways, lawn and landscaping happened. The Rector accounts reference substantial expenditure on the garden between 1794-1797. For many decades the view from the garden was obscured by two large horse chestnut trees. One of these trees was linked to an undergraduate of Brasenose college called Reginald Heber. His ground floor rooms on the corner occupied during 1800-1805 were overshadowed by these trees from the adjacent garden. He went onto become Bishop of Calcutta in 1822. When the tree had to be felled in 1990 a count of its rings put its possible planting date at around 1771. Further research by John Maddicott has put this tree being planted between 1731-32 because of the changes taking place in the garden, details of tree purchases in the Rectors accounts and the creation of the mound from which this tree and another grew from. The second tree had to be felled in 2006 due to disease. The Fellows garden has been the backdrop to many a musical event/drama production during the summer and remains a place of calm for both staff and students to rest.

EC/9/10 College Hall and Kitchen 

The Hall originally stood in the middle of the quadrangle, with the Kitchen and buttery close by. By 1618 the work started on building the current Hall, with a large cellar below it, thanks to a bequest from Sir John Acland. The buttery adjoining to the Hall (now the Senior Common room) was for Fellow's to dine in, which was also built at this period. In Anthony Wood’s Survey of the Antiquities of the City of Oxford, ed. A. Clark, 3 vols. (Oxford Historical Soc., 1889-99), ii. 95 [in Coll. Library]. (writing c.1660) states that during the hall’s construction "in the foundation of which was dug up a stone coffin that had been formerly buried there, containing the reliques of a man with a coronet of some kind of metal on his heads as also several other things of precious concernment in those superstitious times that were reposited by him. All which they esteeming as tokens of venerable antiquity, did to the memory of the person there deposited set up the effigies of a man’s face with a crown on his head near the place where found on the south wall of the cellar under their hall. Which continueth with them to this day". The effigy of a man’s head with a crown can still be seen in the cellar beneath the hall.  The 1618 Hall still standing today has had many refurbishments and embellishments since, including the installation of memorial stained glass windows in 1914. It has been the main gathering place for significant balls and dinners, as well as musical events and plays.