An unpopular dean

Photo credit: By kind permission of the Governing Body of Christ Church, Oxford

Statue of John Fell at Christ Church

Monument to John Fell

John Fell, Bishop of Oxford and Dean of Christ Church (1625-86) in the last few decades of the seventeenth century, was not a universally popular man. ‘I do not like thee, Doctor Fell,/ The reason why – I cannot tell;/But this I know, and know full well,/ I do not like thee, Doctor Fell’, observed one poet. Fell was, however, a critically important person in the transformation of the University after the Restoration. Inheriting many of William Laud’s priorities, he founded a printing press and housed it in the Sheldonian Theatre. He sought to advance the cause of the Church of England and to repress religious dissent. Here he is memorialized in person, but his other monuments include building projects at Christ Church – not least Tom Tower, which was designed by Christopher Wren (1632-1723), architect of the Sheldonian Theatre.