Exeter College was founded in 1314 by Walter de Stapeldon who became Bishop of Exeter and Treasurer of England under Edward II. It was originally known as Stapeldon Hall and its members mainly came from the south-western counties, especially Devon and Cornwall. All that remains of this medieval college is the building known as Palmer's Tower. Through the generosity of Sir William Petre, a former undergraduate and one of the leading statesmen of his time, the college's fortunes were transformed by new property and a wider area of recruitment. The results were seen in the early seventeenth century when Exeter became one of the leading colleges in the University
Front Quad is entered through the new Gate Tower in Turl Street which replaced the old entrance facing the city wall. George Gilbert Scott, who was inspired at the time by the French gothic architecture of Sainte Chapelle in Paris, was employed in the 1850’s to design the new chapel which soars above the residential buildings around the quadrangles below. The steep roof is crowned with a slender spire, below which are buttresses topped with alternating canopied saints and tall pointed windows.