Overview
The Clarendon Building was completed in 1713 for Oxford University Press, with book printing and learned work housed behind Nicholas Hawksmoor's great stone front.
Why it was built
The university built it to give its growing printing business a proper home after the press outgrew rooms in the Sheldonian Theatre.
People and work
Nicholas Hawksmoor designed the building, while printers, editors and university officers worked there through the eighteenth century.
How it changed
The press moved away in the 1830s, and the building then served university offices and other changing uses.
What survives
Its broad classical front, raised entrance, carved stonework and large inner rooms survive beside the Bodleian Library.
Why it mattered
It matters because the building records Oxford's change from small learned printing to a publishing work known around the world.
History checked 16 August 2026 against the named sources below.
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