Buildings we have known

The OCHS plays an important part in the life of the University, as the forum in which the great traditions of Hinduism, and their contemporary living forms, can be studied, taught, and discussed. There is great potential for the future as new resources expand still further the possibilities of OCHS.

Francis X. Clooney, SJ,
Parkman Professor of Divinity, Harvard University, OCHS Academic Director (2002-4)

In 1998, a then fledgeling Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies signed a fifteen-year lease on office space in central Oxford. It was a great leap from earlier, humble beginnings in a suburban house in Divinity Rd.

The new offices in busy Magdalen St allowed room for expansion into a world-class Centre for Hindu Studies. It gave space for a full-fledged library, student facilities, scholars rooms, administrative space, and even an archive.

In the earliest years at Magdalen St there was space to spare and room to grow. But, as time progressed the library quadrupled, the student body grew from three to sixty, the kitchen – built for cups of tea and snacks – now caters for thirty diners at a time, and the archive is packed to the ceiling. All tokens of success and all pointing to a growing need for a new home for Hindu Studies in Oxford.