Freud (aka Freud's) is a
café
A coffeehouse, coffee shop, or café is an establishment that primarily serves coffee of various types, notably espresso, latte, and cappuccino. Some coffeehouses may serve cold drinks, such as iced coffee and iced tea, as well as other non ...
-
bar
Bar or BAR may refer to:
Food and drink
* Bar (establishment), selling alcoholic beverages
* Candy bar
* Chocolate bar
Science and technology
* Bar (river morphology), a deposit of sediment
* Bar (tropical cyclone), a layer of cloud
* Bar (u ...
in a Victorian former church building at 119
Walton Street in
Jericho,
Oxford
Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...
, England].
The
Freud café is located opposite
Great Clarendon Street and the
Oxford University Press
Oxford University Press (OUP) is the university press of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world, and its printing history dates back to the 1480s. Having been officially granted the legal right to print books ...
is also opposite to the south. It is surrounded by the
Radcliffe Observatory Quarter of the
University of Oxford
, mottoeng = The Lord is my light
, established =
, endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019)
, budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20)
, chancellor ...
, formerly the
Radcliffe Infirmary site.
The Freud café is housed in the former
St Paul's Church, a
Greek Revival
The Greek Revival was an architectural movement which began in the middle of the 18th century but which particularly flourished in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, predominantly in northern Europe and the United States and Canada, but a ...
building designed in 1836 by
Henry Jones Underwood
Henry Jones Underwood (1804–1852) was an English architect who spent most of his career in Oxford. He was the brother of the architects Charles Underwood (''circa'' 1791–1883) and George Allen Underwood (dates unknown).
Underwood t ...
.
The church was inspired by an outbreak of
cholera in the area in 1831.
The building has an imposing
portico with
Ionic columns. The architect
Edward George Bruton
Edward George Bruton (17 February 1826 – 3 August 1899) was a British Gothic Revival architect who practised in Oxford. He was made an Associate of the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) in 1855 and a Fellow of the RIBA in 1861.
Bo ...
added the
apse
In architecture, an apse (plural apses; from Latin 'arch, vault' from Ancient Greek 'arch'; sometimes written apsis, plural apsides) is a semicircular recess covered with a hemispherical vault or semi-dome, also known as an '' exedra''. ...
in 1853 and
Frederick Charles Eden
Frederick Charles Eden (8 March 1864 – 15 July 1944) was an English church architect and designer.
Frederick Eden was born in Brighton, Sussex, England. He was the son of Frederick Morton Eden and Louisa Ann Parker.
Eden was a pupil and late ...
remodelled the interior in 1908.
In the 20th century, the church became
redundant and was closed in the late 1960s.
After
deconsecration
Deconsecration, also called secularization, is the act of removing a religious blessing from something that had been previously consecrated by a minister or priest of that religion. The practice is usually performed on churches or synagogues to b ...
, the building was bought by the
Oxford Area Arts Council and used as a theatre and arts centre venue. In 1988, the building was acquired by Secession Ltd to prevent the building's demolition. Freud opened as a café/bar in the same year.
The cafe was created by David Freud, a graduate of the
Courtauld Institute of Art
The Courtauld Institute of Art (), commonly referred to as The Courtauld, is a self-governing college of the University of London specialising in the study of the history of art and conservation. It is among the most prestigious specialist coll ...
, who has an interest in buildings and their interaction with people.
There is sometimes live music, such as jazz, punk,
post-punk
Post-punk (originally called new musick) is a broad music genre, genre of Punk Music, punk music that emerged in the late 1970s as musicians departed from punk's traditional elements and raw simplicity, instead adopting a variety of avant-garde s ...
or
blues.
The name is often written in Roman-style
capital lettering as "FREVD", for example above the main entrance
door.
In 2015, a new building for the
Blavatnik School of Government
The Blavatnik School of Government is a school of public policy founded in 2010 at the University of Oxford in England. The School was founded following a £75 million donation from a business magnate Leonard Blavatnik, supported by £26 million ...
of Oxford University on the Radcliffe Observatory Quarter site was opened immediately to the south of Freud. The scheme was opposed by the cafe's owner, David Freud, due to its size and height compared to the church building.
There is another Freud café-bar in London.
See also
*
List of Italian restaurants
References
External links
*
{{coord, 51.75946, -1.26478, type:landmark_region:GB, display=title
Commercial buildings completed in 1836
1988 establishments in England
Restaurants in Oxfordshire
Italian restaurants in the United Kingdom
Coffeehouses and cafés in the United Kingdom
Former churches in Oxford
Former theatres in England
Arts centres in England
Greek Revival architecture in the United Kingdom
Culture in Oxford