Merton College was founded in 1264 by Walter de Merton. It has the best claim to be the earliest Oxford college and was started before any established idea of how a university college should work. As a result the layout of the college developed piecemeal. St Alban Hall which was to the east of Merton was demolished in the early 1900‘s to make way for Basil Champneys St Alban’s Quad. It was built to house undergraduates in a detailed set of rooms arranged round an open courtyard looking over Christ Church Meadow.