Campion Hall was founded as a private Hall for members of the Society of Jesus (Jesuits) in 1896, the year when Roman Catholics were officially permitted to return to the University. It acquired the status of Permanent Private Hall in 1916, and moved to its fine Lutyens buildings in Brewer Street in 1936. The archives of the Hall are modest in scope and extent: they are mostly concerned with the daily running of the institution. There is, however, an unusually complete set of documentation for Sir Edwin Lutyens’s buildings: plans as well as building receipts and much correspondence. There are five boxes of correspondence relating to the small but excellent collection of works of art and historic vestments assembled in the 1930s by the then Master Fr Martin D’Arcy SJ. These include details of the use made of gifts and royalties assigned for the support of the Hall by Evelyn Waugh, as well as correspondence with a number of artists, including Gill and Brangwyn. The archive contains a number of letters and drawings relating to the fine murals painted in the Lady Chapel by Charles Mahoney in the 1940s and 1950s. The Hall also holds a substantial number of notebooks, spiritual writings and sketches by the Jesuit poet Gerard Manley Hopkins.
Facilities for researchers are limited, and access is by appointment with the Assistant Archivist, Alice Millea, at alice.millea@campion.ox.ac.uk
Please note that only scans of the Hopkins materials are available; originals may only be consulted in exceptional circumstances by permission of the Master.
