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