One of the oldest colleges, Balliol was founded by John de Balliol as penance following a quarrel with the Bishop of Durham. It is one of the richest colleges in Oxford, both in terms of wealth and in terms of the long list of famous writers and politicians that it can count amongst its members.

Former Members: John Wyclif, Gerard Manley Hopkins, Robert Southey, Matthew Arnold, H.H. Asquith, Harold MacMillan, Edward Heath, Roy Jenkins, Denis Healey, Aldous Huxley, Graham Greene.

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Brasenose College stands on the site of one of Oxford's many academic halls that appeared in the 13th Century. On the door of Brasenose Hall was a large, brass knocker in the shape of an animals snout (the "brazen nose") and it is from this artifact that both the hall and college take their name. But the knocker was taken off to Lincoln by a group of academics and students when they set up a new college there in the 1330s. There it remained for more than 500 years. When the building came up for sale in 1890, Brasenose bought the entire property just to retrieve their precious snout, which now hangs over high table in hall.

Former Members: Field Marshal Earl Haig, Jeffrey Archer, John Buchan, William Golding, Michael Palin, Robert Runcie.

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The largest and wealthiest Oxford college, Christ Church is also home to the smallest cathedral in Britain. With Henry VIII as a founder, the college has always had a royal heritage and played host to court and parliament during the Great Plagues and Civil War of the 17th century. One of the most recognisable landmarks in Oxford, Tom Tower, stands at the from of Christ Church's great quad. Like the Sheldonian Theatre in Broad Street, it was designed by Sir Christopher Wren. It houses a seven and a half ton bell called Great Tom which is still rung 101 times each night at 9.05pm to announce curfew to its students, though little attention is paid to it these days, of course! Why does in sound at 9.05pm? Because that is 9pm Oxford local time.

Former Members: Sir Philip Sidney, Robert Hooke, William Penn, John Wesley, C. L. Dodgson (alias Lewis Carroll), William Walton, W.H. Auden, Auberon Waugh, David Dimbleby and 14 British Prime Ministers including Robert Peel, William Gladstone and Anthony Eden. 

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Tucked away on Merton Street between Christ Church and Merton, Corpus Christi is Oxford's smallest college and, unsurprisingly, holds the record for the smallest quad also. The story goes that the founder, Richard Foxe, went blind before the college was completed, to avoid his disappointment, was led around the quad several times to make it seem bigger than it actually was! The college does not have a particularly illustrious history compared to others, but it does possess a beautiful front quad and is the venue of the annual tortoise race between Balliol, Corpus and Brasenoe. 

Former Members: Thomas Arnold, John Keble, John Ruskin.

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The fourth oldest college is a fairly unremarkable college in every respect apart from its chapel. The thin, turreted spire is one of Oxford's most recognisable and the chapel itself is modelled on the Sainte Chapelle in Paris. 

Former Members: Hubert Parry, William Morris, J.R.R. Tolkein, Richard Burton, Roger Bannister, Alan Bennett.

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Hertford began as an academic hall in 1282. Since then, it has been dissolved and refounded on a number of occasions, most recently in 1874 following a generous donation of money from the banker Thomas Baring. Some of this money was used to renovate the college, including the building of a bridge between the old and new quads situated on either side of New College Lane. This bridge, known as the 'Bridge of Sighs' because of its similarity to the Ponte dei Sospiri in Venice, is now one of Oxford's most famous landmarks.

Former Members: William Tyndale, John Donne, Jonathan Swift, Evelyn Waugh, Henry Pelham, Charles J Fox.

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Although Queen Elizabeth I was given credit for the foundation of the college, the money was raised and the work undertaken by Hugh Price, the treasurer of St David's Cathedral in Pembrokeshire, Wales. The college has maintained strong links with Wales since its foundation and, for most of its history, has been populated almost entirely by Welsh students and fellows. In 1974, it became the first men's college to accept women undergraduates.

Former Members: T.E. Lawrence (of Arabia), Harold Wilson, Magnus Magnussen

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Keble College was founded with public money in memory of John Keble, founder of the Oxford Movement. The main aim of the college was to make an Oxford education accessible to talented students who had neither the means nor the influence to gain entry into one of Oxford's more traditional colleges. That philosophy is still embraced by the college today. Perhaps as a way of emphasising the break with Oxford tradition, the college is constructed from brick instead of stone and has more the appearance of a Victorian hospital than a college. 

Former Members: Peter Pears, Imran Khan 

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LMH was the first college established in Oxford for women. However, although women were allowed to attend university lectures, they were not allowed to become full members of the university and take degrees until 1920. Since 1979, LMH has admitted male undergraduates and now has roughly equal numbers of men and women.

Former Members: Baroness Warnock, Lady Antonia Fraser, Benazir Bhutto.

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Richard Flemming, a firmly conservative clergyman, founded Linacre in order to teach scholars 'to defend the mysteries of Scripture against ignorant laymen.' Yet it was at Lincoln College, some 300 years later, that John Wesley started his 'Holy Club' before going on to found the Methodist movement. In 1970, to the outrage of local parishioners, Lincoln College bought the neighbouring building that was All Saints church and opened it as their college library in 1975.

Former Members: Howard Florey, Edward Thomas, John Le Carre, Dr Seuss.  

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Magdalen College (pronounced 'Maudlin') has a reputation as one of Oxford's most beautiful colleges, and rightly so. The famous Great Tower (by William Reynolds) stands sentinel beside Magdalen Bridge and inside the college you will find peaceful cloister gardens, riverside walks and a deer park where a herd of fallow deer has been kept for over 300 years. Each year on 1st May, Magdalen is the scene of the beginning of Oxford's traditional May Morning celebrations. Crowds gather on Magdalen Bridge to welcome in the Spring and, at 6am sharp, Magdalen Choristers sing madrigals to the hushed crowds below.  

Former Members: Cardinal Wolsey, C.S. Lewis, John Betjeman, Oscar Wilde, Dudley Moore

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Since University College dropped their long standing claim to have been founded by Alfred the Great in the 9th century, Merton College is recognised as the oldest college in Oxford. The idea of a self-governing community of scholars with buildings laid out in quadrangles became the model upon which all future Oxford colleges (and those in Cambridge, for that matter) would be based. Merton also has the oldest college library, with precious medieval manuscripts chained to the walls. 

Former Members: John Wyclif, Thomas Bodley, Lord Randolph Churchill, Max Beerbohm, T.S. Eliot, Kris Kristopherson

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The college was founded on the site of the city's largest plague pit. New College was the first to admit undergraduates and was established in order to train new priests to replace those lost during the Black Death of 1348. Its most famous former member is also one of the most well known Oxford eccentrics, the Rev. William Spooner. With a reputation for bungling absent-mindedness, he also had a peculiar speech defect whereby he would mix up the starting syllables of words. Some of these so called 'Spoonerisms' have become legendary. He once scolded a student for 'hissing all my Mystery lectures and tasting two whole worms', referred to a well known, two wheeled vehicle as a 'well boiled icycle' and is said to have once stood up after dinner and exclaimed 'three cheers for our queer old Dean'. 

Former Members: Rev. William Spooner, John Galsworthy, Hugh Gaitskell, Tony Benn

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Oriel holds the record for the longest name in Oxford, since its official name is 'The Provost and Scholars of the House of the Blessed Mary the Virgin in Oxford, commonly called Oriel College, the foundation of Edward the Second of famous memory, sometime King of England'. It was at the centre of the Oxford Movement in the 19th century, but in recent times has become more famous for rowing, having finished Head of the River in most of the last 25 years of the 20th century. It also has the dubious honour of being the last Oxford college to admit women (1984). 

Former Members: Sir Walter Raleigh, Cecil Rhodes, Edward Pusey, Cardinal Newman, Beau Brummell, John Keble, A.J.P. Taylor

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Always a poor neighbour to the enormously wealthy Christ Church across the road, Pembroke has been variously referred to as the coal scuttle, cellar and dust hole of the University. Even its most famous former member, Samuel Johnson (the lexicographer who compiled the first English dictionary) only stayed for four terms.  

Former Members: Samuel Johnson, James Lewis Smithson, Michael Heseltine, William Fulbright

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Confusingly, the Queen in question is Queen Philippa of Hainault, wife of Edward III. However, the statue over the main gate on the High is of Queen Caroline, wife of George II, who funded the building of its two impressive quads in the mid-18th century. The Queen's College was also the last college to give up brewing its own beer, in the mid 20th century.

Former Members: King Henry V, Edmund Halley, Rowan Atkinson, Brian Walden.

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When Oxford's first women's college (LMH) decided that only members of the Anglican faith would be admitted, Somerville was founded as a rival. The college is named after the then internationally famous scientist Mary Somerville. Somerville's most famous former member was Margaret Roberts, who studied chemistry in the 1940s. After marrying the millionaire Denis Thatcher, Margaret Thatcher went on to become the 20th century's longest serving Prime Minister and the first woman ever to hold the post. But the University caused outrage in 1985 when it declined to award her an honourary doctorate, an award that is traditionally made to former members who go on to become Prime Ministers.  

Former Members: Indira Gandhi, Dorothy L Sayers, Iris Murdoch, Margaret Thatcher.

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Teddy Hall, as it is known affectionately, only received full university status in 1957 and until then was Oxford's only surviving academic hall. The college is a hotch-potch of tiny quads and the library is housed in the old chapel, accessible by steps made from ancient gravestones. 

Former Members: Terry Jones, Sir Robin Day. 

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This college is so wealthy, it is said that one can travel from Oxford to Cambridge without setting foot off land owned by St John's. Whether or not this is true, St John's does own most of North Oxford and other property throughout the country. The college was founded during the reign of catholic Queen Mary on the site of St Bernard's Monastery, destroyed during the Dissolutions under Henry VIII. These days the college is famous for both its academic excellence and for its gardens.

Former Members: Edmund Campion, William Laud, Robert Graves, A.E. Houseman, John Wain, Kingsley Amis, Philip Larkin, Tony Blair

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Despite appearances, for the college is set in expanses of immaculately kept lawns behind large, wrought iron gates, Trinity is one of Oxford's smaller colleges. The founder, Sir Thomas Pope, served as a treasurer to Henry VIII and was responsible for managing the estates of monasteries dissolved during the Reformation. One of those estates was Durham College, and it was on this site that Trinity College was founded in 1555. Ironically, the site is barely 100 yards from the point on Broad Street where the protestant bishops Latimer and Ridley were burned at the stake by Catholic Queen Mary in the same year.

Former Members: William Pitt the Elder, George Calvert, Jeremy Thorpe, Terence Rattigan, Anthony Crossland, James Elroy Flecker, Laurence Binyon.

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For centuries, University College claimed to have been founded by King Alfred the Great in the 9th century. Alas, the evidence to support this claim was forged during the 14th century by Fellows in support of a property dispute and the claim has now been quietly dropped. Even so, University is still the oldest of Oxford's colleges. The poet Percy Bysshe Shelley studied at University for less than a year before being sent down for distributing a leaflet on atheism. However, one of the college's most notable features today is the Shelley Memorial. Unfortunately, University is one of the very few colleges that is permanently closed to visitors.

Former Members: Robert Boyle, Percy Bysshe Shelley, C.S. Lewis, Dr John Radcliffe, Clement Attlee, Bill Clinton, Willie Rushton, Richard Ingrams, Bob Hawke, Stephen Hawking.

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The college was founded on an endowment from Nicholas Wadham and his formidable wife Dorothy oversaw the establishment of the college in a period of just four years. In the 1650s, Warden John Wilkins gathered some of the greatest scientific thinkers of the day together for meetings in the room above the porter's lodge. The attendees, including Christopher Wren, went on to found the Royal Society in 1662. The college also owns the Holywell Music Room, the oldest purpose built music room in Europe which has played host to both Handel and Haydn. 

Former Members: Sir Christopher Wren, Sir Thomas Beecham, Cecil Day-Lewis, Michael Foot, Melvyn Bragg.

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Gloucester College, founded in 1283 for Benedictine monks, was dissolved during the Reformation and became Gloucester Hall, an outpost of St John's. In 1714, due to a large donation from a wealthy baronet from Worcester named Thomas Cookes, the hall became a college in its own right and was renamed after the geographic origin of its benefactor. A row of medieval cottages within the grounds are now all that remains of the original Gloucester College. Worcester library was designed by the architect Nicholas Hawksmoor and the college is set in 26 acres of grounds, including a picturesque lake. 

Former Members: Richard Adams, Rupert Murdoch, John Sainsbury

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OTHER HALLS AND COLLEGES