Radcliffe Camera

Location map
Oxford (central)
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caption=Location of the Radcliffe Camera within central OxfordThe Radcliffe Camera (colloquially, "Rad Cam" or "Radders") is a building in Oxford, England, designed by James Gibbs in the Palladian architecture#English Palladian revival (neo-Palladian)
English Palladian style and built in 1737–1749 to house the Radcliffe Science Library. The building was funded by a £40,000 bequest from John Radcliffe, who died in 1714. Nicholas Hawksmoor originally proposed making the building round, although the final plans designed by Gibbs were quite different from those planned by Hawksmoor.

After the Radcliffe Science Library moved into another building, the Radcliffe Camera became home to additional reading rooms of the Bodleian Library. It now holds books from the English, history, and theology collections, mostly secondary sources found on undergraduate reading lists. There is space for around 600,000 books in rooms beneath Radcliffe Square.

Many students choose to order books up to Radcliffe Camera's reading rooms to enjoy the picturesque surroundings. Annoyingly for staff, it is also one of the harder Bodleian sites to deliver items to. [cite news |title=The Bod's Secret Underbelly |author=Henry Clarke Price |date=2007-11-16 |url=http://www.cherwell.org/content.php?id=709 |publisher=Cherwell]

The word "camera" translates from Latin as "room" or "chamber".

References in popular culture

* J. R. R. Tolkien, author of "The Lord of the Rings", remarked that the building resembled Sauron's temple to Morgoth on Númenor. [Simon Rose, December 9, 2001 tourist trail article [http://www.24hourmuseum.org.uk/trlout_gfx_en/TRA10493.html Fellowship of the Ring/J.R.R. Tolkien Trail] 24 hour museum.] It also features in "The Notion Club Papers".
* Elizabeth Kostova's novel "The Historian" includes a very intense scene set in the interior of the Radcliffe Camera.
* The Camera was used as a location in the films "Young Sherlock Holmes" (1985), "Opium Wars" (Yapian zhanzheng) (1997), "The Saint" (1997) and "The Red Violin" (1998), [Leonard, Bill, "The Oxford of Inspector Morse" Location Guides, Oxford (2004) p.202 ISBN 0-9547671-1-X.] and was seen in "The Golden Compass" (2008).
* The building is also seen in the "Inspector Morse" television series, set in Oxford.

See also

* Radcliffe Infirmary
* Radcliffe Observatory
* Radcliffe Science Library
* Radcliffe Quad

References

External links

* [http://www.oxfordcityguide.com/TouristInfo/SightSeeing.html Photograph and short history from OxfordCityGuide.com]
* [http://www.britainexpress.com/cities/oxford/radcliffe.htm Britain Express information]
* [http://www.dailyinfo.co.uk/guide/images/RadcliffeCamera.htm Photograph] from Daily Information
* [http://www.bluffton.edu/~sullivanm/england/oxford/gibbs/radcliffe.html Images of Radcliffe Camera]
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