Tom Quad, with Tom Tower in the background, at Christ Church, Oxford
Photo: Toby Ord, Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 2.5 License
Christ Church is one of the largest constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. In addition to being a college, Christ Church is also the cathedral church of the diocese of Oxford, namely Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford. The cathedral is famous for its men and boys' choir.
Christ Church has traditionally regarded as the most aristocratic college in Oxford. It has produced thirteen British prime ministers (the two most recent being Anthony Eden from 1955 to 1957 and Sir Alec Douglas-Home in 1963–1964). This is more than any other Oxford or Cambridge college, and just two short of the total number for the University of Cambridge, fifteen.
Christ Church has also been made famous from the literary world. Parts of it has been the setting for Evelyn Waugh's Brideshead Revisited and Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. More recently Christ Church was used for the filming of J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter series and also the film adaptation of Philip Pullman's novel The Northern Lights (film named after the title of the US edition of the book, The Golden Compass). Other academic institutions have also reproduced distinctive features of its architecture, including the National University of Ireland, Galway, which reproduces Tom Quad. The University of Chicago and Cornell University both have reproductions of Christ Church's dining hall (calling it Hutchinson Hall and Risley's dining hall respectively). Even Christ Church Cathedral in New Zealand, after which the City of Christchurch was named, was itself named after Christ Church, Oxford.
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