Former India Institute Weathervane

Intended to house the Indian Institute, this building by the architect Basil Champneys (1842-1935) is loaded with symbols of the subcontinent, not least an elephant weathervane. It is just one of the more overt locations where Oxford met Empire – and it was also one of the least successful. The Indian Institute was meant to educate undergraduates: encouraging them to become Indian civil servants and Christian missionaries. It did not – and by 1909 the University’s Chancellor and former Viceroy of India, Lord Curzon (1859-1925), declared that the fact it was predominantly visited by women was proof of its failure. The building now houses the Oxford Martin School, after a spell as the History Faculty Library.

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