Oxford has more architectural pleasures and surprises than anywhere else in Britain, and nowhere else has so much spirit and energy been expended, often in marvellously silly ways. When, therefore, the Oxford Union Society needed money to repair their first debating chamber (now the library) we asked if, in return for a contribution, a place could be found where our visitors could stay.

The Union, formed as a debating society in 1823 to encourage free speech and speculation, acquired a site at No. 7 St Michael’s Street in 1852. In 1856 their first debating chamber, which was to be a library as well, was built to the design of Benjamin Woodward, a disciple of Ruskin. While he was finishing the building he showed it to D. G. Rossetti and to William Morris, ‘a rather rough and unpolished youth’, and they offered to paint ‘figures of some kind’ in the gallery window bays – which they did in the Long Vacation, assisted by their friends, including Edward Burne-Jones. William Morris finished his bay first and began painting the roof. These longfaded scenes from the Arthurian legend by famous painters in their youth, a wonderful possession for the Union, have been brought back to life, and the building restored.

In return for helping them we have a self-contained floor and a half in the former official residence of the Steward of the Union. He was an important, permanent figure who kept the show on the road, and kept order, while generations of undergraduates came and went. His spacious house was added, with a new library, in 1910 to the design of W. E. Mills of Oxford. It is a thoroughgoing Edwardian affair, of a kind and quality that we are pleased to look after; and our generously proportioned rooms, particularly the sitting-room, will give you a true impression of the Oxford of that day, while the vigorous and sometimes rather noisy activities of modern Oxford, and of the modern Union, take place around you.

Sleeps: 2