Radcliffe Camera

The Radcliffe Camera is recognizable by its circular, domed shape rising above Radcliffe Square, a classic piece of Baroque architecture that has become a fixture of Oxford’s skyline. Built between seventeen thirty-seven and seventeen forty-nine, the building was funded by a forty-thousand-pound bequest from the royal physician John Radcliffe, who died in seventeen fourteen. The name itself comes from the Latin word for room, reflecting its original purpose as a standalone science library.