There has been an institution of learning on the college site since the late thirteenth century. The buildings of the old 13th century Gloucester College for Benedictine monks, which was dissolved with the Dissolution of Monasteries in about 1539, were used in the foundation of Gloucester Hall in around 1560. Worcester College was founded in 1714, thanks to a benefaction from Worcestershire baronet Sir Thomas Cookes. The College has gardens extending to 26 acres, including a beautiful lake. One important advantage of these gardens is that Worcester, unlike any other college, has playing fields within its own grounds.
The plan by George Clark and Nicholas Hawksmoor was to demolish all the old buildings and construct an open ended courtyard facing away from the city. The Hall, Chapel and Library were built and the residential buildings on the North range but the southern range was never built because of a shortage of funds and so the 15th century monk’s houses remain. The west, or garden front contains the library which holds Clark’s architectural drawings. It is placed over a loggia with a central pedimented feature. The residential block to the north has blind arches on the ground floor and the windows of the two upper storeys are inset into the wall surface.