Clarendon Building

The Clarendon Building is defined by its massive, pedimented portico and the nine lead figures of the Muses that stand along its roofline. Designed by Nicholas Hawksmoor and completed in seventeen fifteen, the building began its life as the Oxford University Press. Before this structure rose on Broad Street, the university’s printers struggled for space, often working out of the cramped basement of the nearby Sheldonian Theatre.