Chapel of St Peter le Bailey, Oxford
Chapel of St Peter le Bailey, Oxford
The former parish church of St Peter-le-Bailey on New Inn Hall Street, Oxford, is now the chapel of St Peter’s College. It is a Grade II Gothic Revival church of 1874 by Basil Champneys, in the Diocese of Oxford.
- Location
- Oxford, Oxfordshire
- Country
- England
- County
- Oxfordshire
- City / town
- Oxford
- Address
- New Inn Hall Street, Oxford, Oxfordshire, OX1 2DL
- Postcode
- OX1 2DL
- Built
- 1872–74 (third church; predecessors on Bonn Square from the C12, rebuilt 1740, demolished 1873)
- Architect
- Basil Champneys
- Denomination
- Church of England
- Dedication
- Peter
- Diocese
- Oxford
- Parish
- Oxford St Ebbe with Holy Trinity and St Peter le Bailey (college chapel since 1961)
- Grade
- II
- Style
- Gothic Revival
- Materials
- Stone from the previous church and Bath (Box Ground) stone
- Grid reference
- SP 5112 0623
- Opening hours
- Sorry, there are no regular opening times for this church.
- Access
- Accessible toilets nearby. Level access to the main areas
Overview
The suffix “le-Bailey” refers to the castle bailey and distinguished this church from St Peter-in-the-East. A church of St Peter at the Castle, granted to St Frideswide’s Priory in 1122, stood at what is now Bonn Square. A Norman church (also called St Peter at the Castle) was destroyed when its tower collapsed in 1726; a successor of 1740 was demolished in 1873 for road widening. Champneys designed the third church further north, opened in 1874 — his first Oxford building — using stone from the old church and Bath stone. It holds monuments and fittings from the previous church. An oak and limewood reredos of 1929, designed by F. E. Howard and carved by A. R. Mowbray & Co, is a memorial to Edith Chavasse, wife of Francis James Chavasse.
When St Peter’s Hall was founded in 1928 the building served as both parish church and hall chapel. In 1961 the hall became a full college and the parish was united with St Ebbe’s; since then the church has been used solely as the college chapel.
Historic England listed it Grade II on 12 January 1954 (list entry 1369709).