Campion Hall Invites Friends' Support

Above Images, Campion Hall Entrance and Dining Hall, courtesy of D Mays and David Lewis

Campion Hall, in Oxford’s Brewer Street, was designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens in 1935-36, commissioned by the Charismatic Jesuit Fr Martin D’Arcy. Professor Peter Davidson, the Hall’s Fellow-Curator provides the context. ‘It is not only a most beautiful building in the late Arts and Crafts manner, with hints of the modern, but a complete work of art combining garden, building and the art collection which Fr D’Arcy intended to serve as “an epitome of Catholic civilization”.’ Delegates joining the coming conference on 1st November 2025, will enjoy a splendid tour of the Hall and see the team’s careful restoration work, both completed and in hand, thanks to Peter.

The Hall flourishes today as a highly successful small graduate college, with a Jesuit community at its heart, and a distinguished Senior Common Room made up of men and women of all faiths and none.

In the photographs of the Hall from the 1930s, the end wall of Lutyens’s dining room is shown hung with textile, combining aesthetic effect with the useful effect of containing noise in a room otherwise furnished (and now-refurbished) with Arts and Crafts furniture in keeping with Lutyens designs.

An opportunity has arisen to purchase a substantial fragment of fine sixteenth century verdure tapestry which would fit the end wall exactly. It shows a fantastical, exotic ‘new world’ of foliage and elephants and monsters, very appropriate for a house of a global order like the Society of Jesus. The esteemed dealer who currently has the tapestry is willing to let the College have the piece at a modest cost but even this is beyond the current funds of the institution. Peter advises: ‘We are asking people of goodwill, and friends of Lutyens and of Oxford, as well as Jesuit alumni and associates to consider contributing a sum from £50 to £5000 pounds to help to secure this piece for the Hall.’

If you would like to help, please send notice of intention to contribute in the first instance to Professor Peter Davidson, [email protected]

Campion Hall is a Permanent Private Hall of the University of Oxford and is a work of the Jesuits in Britain, CIO (Reg’d Charity 1207742, SC053495).