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The Abbot's Kitchen in
Oxford Oxford () is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and non-metropolitan district in Oxfordshire, England, of which it is the county town. The city is home to the University of Oxford, the List of oldest universities in continuou ...
, England, is an early
chemistry Chemistry is the scientific study of the properties and behavior of matter. It is a physical science within the natural sciences that studies the chemical elements that make up matter and chemical compound, compounds made of atoms, molecules a ...
laboratory based on the Abbot's Kitchen at
Glastonbury Abbey Glastonbury Abbey was a monastery in Glastonbury, Somerset, England. Its ruins, a grade I listed building and scheduled ancient monument, are open as a visitor attraction. The abbey was founded in the 8th century and enlarged in the 10th. It wa ...
in
Somerset Somerset ( , ), Archaism, archaically Somersetshire ( , , ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by the Bristol Channel, Gloucestershire, and Bristol to the north, Wiltshire to the east ...
, England, a
mediaeval In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and t ...
14th-century octagonal building that served as the
kitchen A kitchen is a room (architecture), room or part of a room used for cooking and food preparation in a dwelling or in a commercial establishment. A modern middle-class residential kitchen is typically equipped with a Kitchen stove, stove, a sink ...
at the
abbey An abbey is a type of monastery used by members of a religious order under the governance of an abbot or abbess. Abbeys provide a complex of buildings and land for religious activities, work, and housing of Christians, Christian monks and nun ...
.


History

Chemistry was first recognized as a separate discipline at
Oxford University The University of Oxford is a collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the second-oldest continuously operating u ...
with the construction of this laboratory, attached to the
Oxford University Museum of Natural History The Oxford University Museum of Natural History (OUMNH) is a museum displaying many of the University of Oxford's natural history specimens, located on Parks Road in Oxford, England. It also contains a lecture theatre which is used by the univers ...
, and opening in 1860. The laboratory is a stone-built structure to the right of the museum, built in the
Victorian Gothic Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic or neo-Gothic) is an Architectural style, architectural movement that after a gradual build-up beginning in the second half of the 17th century became a widespread movement in the first half ...
style. The building was one of the first ever purpose-built chemical laboratories anywhere and was extended in 1878. A further major extension adding three wings was completed in 1957. It is now part of the new graduate college of the University, Reuben College, which opened in 2023.


Gallery

File:University Museum and Abbot's Kitchen, Oxford.JPG,
Oxford University Museum of Natural History The Oxford University Museum of Natural History (OUMNH) is a museum displaying many of the University of Oxford's natural history specimens, located on Parks Road in Oxford, England. It also contains a lecture theatre which is used by the univers ...
(left) and the Abbot's Kitchen chemistry laboratory (right) File:University Museum, Oxford; proposed sketch. Wood engraving b Wellcome V0014197.jpg, Wood engraving of the Oxford University Museum with the smaller octagonal Abbot's Kitchen building on the right, by W. E. Hodgkin (1855) File:Radcliffesciencelibrary.jpg, The
Radcliffe Science Library The Radcliffe Science Library (RSL) is the main teaching and research science library at the University of Oxford in Oxford, England. Being officially part of the Bodleian Libraries, the library holds the Legal Deposit material for the sciences a ...
with the Abbot's Kitchen on the left


See also

* Abbot's Kitchen, Glastonbury, on which the laboratory building was based * Balliol–Trinity Laboratories, another early Oxford chemistry laboratory * Department of Chemistry, University of Oxford * List of octagonal buildings and structures


References


External links

* {{authority control 1860 establishments in England Buildings and structures completed in 1860 Buildings and structures of the University of Oxford University and college laboratories in the United Kingdom Chemistry laboratories Octagonal buildings in the United Kingdom Stone buildings in the United Kingdom Reuben College, Oxford