Editing Keble College, Oxford (section)

==History==
[[File:Portrait of John Keble (cropped).jpg|thumb|left|150px|[[John Keble]], a leading member of the [[Oxford Movement]], after whom the college is named]]
The best-known of Keble's [[Victorian era|Victorian]] founders was [[Edward Pusey]], after whom the Pusey quad and Pusey room are named.<ref name="Keble Tour"/> The college itself is named after [[John Keble]], one of Pusey's colleagues in the [[Oxford Movement]], who died four years before the college's foundation in 1870. It was decided immediately after Keble's funeral that his memorial would be a new Oxford college bearing his name. The chosen architect was [[William Butterfield]]. Two years later, in 1868, the foundation stone was laid by the [[Archbishop of Canterbury]] on [[St Mark]]'s Day (25 April, John Keble's birthday).<ref>{{cite web|url=http://anglicanhistory.org/england/swilberforce/resurrections1868.html |title=The Resurrections of the Truth: A Sermon, preached in the Church of Saint Mary the Virgin, Oxford, on Saint Mark's Day, April 25, 1868, being the Day of Laying the First Stone of Keble College|first= Samuel|last= Wilberforce|year=1868}}</ref> The college first opened in 1870, taking in thirty students, whilst the chapel was opened on St Mark's Day 1876. Accordingly, the college continues to celebrate St Mark's Day each year.{{citation needed|date=March 2021}}

Butterfield produced a notable example of [[Victorian Gothic]] architecture, among his few secular buildings, which [[Sir Nikolaus Pevsner|Pevsner]] characterised as "actively ugly",{{sfn|Sherwood|Pevsner|1996|p=227}} and which, according to [[Charles Eastlake]], defied criticism.<ref>Eastlake, ''A History of the Gothic Revival'' "Chapel of Baliol College, Oxford", p 261f.</ref> The social historian [[G.&nbsp;M. Trevelyan]] expressed the then commonly held, and highly dismissive, view: "the monstrosities of architecture erected by order of the dons of Oxford and Cambridge colleges in the days of William Butterfield and [[Alfred Waterhouse]] give daily pain to posterity."{{sfn|Trevelyan|1944|p=524}} Sir [[Kenneth Clark]] recalled that during his Oxford years it was generally believed in Oxford not only that Keble College was "the ugliest building in the world" but that its architect was [[John Ruskin]], author of ''[[The Stones of Venice (book)|The Stones of Venice]].''{{sfn|Clark|1962|p=2}} The college is built of red, blue, and white bricks; the main structure is of red brick, with white and blue patterned banding. The builders were Parnell & Son of Rugby.{{citation needed|date=March 2021}}

[[File:Keble SCR.jpg|thumb|left|Senior Common Room]]
On its construction, Keble was not always admired within the university. Undergraduates at St John's College started the ''Destroy Keble Society'', which aimed to dismantle the college brick by brick.<ref>{{cite magazine |last=Whyte |first=William |date=14 October 2013 |title=Eye of the Beholder |url=https://issuu.com/oxfordalumni/docs/ot-mm-2013/33 |magazine=Oxford Today |location=Oxford |publisher=Oxford University |access-date=28 June 2019 }}{{Dead link|date=April 2025 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref>

An apocryphal story claims that a French visitor, on first sight of the college exclaimed ''C'est magnifique mais ce n'est pas la gare?'' ("It is magnificent but is it not the railway station?"). This is a play on Field Marshal [[Pierre Bosquet]]'s memorable line, referring to the [[Charge of the Light Brigade]], ''C'est magnifique, mais ce n'est pas la guerre'' ("It is magnificent, but it is not war"). This story may have been borrowed from [[Arthur Wing Pinero]]'s identical quip said to have been made at the opening ceremony for the [[Royal Courts of Justice]] in London.{{citation needed|date=March 2021}}

Keble is mentioned in [[John Betjeman]]'s poem "Myfanwy at Oxford", as well as in the writings of [[John Ruskin]] and in [[Monty Python]]'s "Travel Agent" sketch. [[Horace Rumpole]], the barrister in [[John Mortimer]]'s books, was a Law graduate of Keble.<ref>{{cite magazine |author=<!--Staff writer(s); no by-line.--> |title=And finally... |url=http://thebrick.keble.net/brick47/brick47.pdf |magazine=The Brick |location=Oxford |publisher=Keble College, Oxford |date=2009 |access-date=6 March 2022 |archive-date=6 February 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230206083605/http://thebrick.keble.net/brick47/brick47.pdf |url-status=dead }}</ref>

In 2005, Keble College featured in the national UK press when its bursar, Roger Boden, was found guilty of racial discrimination by an employment tribunal.<ref>{{cite news|url= http://education.guardian.co.uk/higher/news/story/0,,1455086,00.html|title= Oxford college guilty of race discrimination|newspaper = [[The Guardian|guardian.co.uk]] | location=London | first=Matthew | last=Taylor | date=8 April 2005 | access-date=7 May 2010}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.btinternet.com/~akme/versindx.html |title=Employment Tribunal (Reading) case no. 2701126/04 |url-status=bot: unknown |archive-url=https://archive.today/20120630225033/http://www.btinternet.com/~akme/versindx.html |archive-date=30 June 2012 }}</ref> An appeal was launched by the college and Boden against the tribunal's judgement, resulting in a financial out-of-court settlement with the aggrieved employee.{{citation needed|date=March 2021}}

In Christmas of 2017, a team of alumni from Keble College won the ''[[University Challenge]] Alumni Christmas Special'', a seasonal programme on BBC2. They beat the [[University of Reading]] by 240 points to 0 in the final.{{citation needed|date=March 2021}}