The Radcliffe Camera, Oxford

The Radcliffe Camera is named after Dr. John Radcliffe who left the money in his will for the building of a Science library. It is now a reading room for the Bodleian Library to which it is connected by a tunnel. Although the original design was by Nicholas Hawksmoor he died before the building was started and James Gibbs was appointed to carry out the work. His plan was for a rectangular building but he was persuaded to conform to Hawksmoor’s design for a domed circular library.

From the outside the Baroque building resembles a mausoleum. The colonnades at ground floor level were originally open but were enclosed when the library became part of the Bodleian in 1862. Above this are pairs of Corinthian three quarter columns with alternate wide bays with windows and narrow bays concealing buttresses. These buttresses can be seen above the cornice and balustrade and were designed to support a stone dome. However the dome was built of wood covered in lead and more rounded than originally planned