When University College first came into being, its original home was not on the High Street, but apparently instead on the site of what is now part of Brasenose College.

It was only in 1332 that the College bought a house on the south side of the High, first known as Selverine Hall or Spicer Hall, and soon renamed as “Great University Hall”, and we moved the site of the College there shortly afterwards.

The early Masters and Fellows of Univ lived in Great University Hall for several decades, but eventually decided to construct something larger.

A Chapel was completed in 1398, a Hall in about 1450, and a Tower over the High Street entrance in about 1460, and by the middle of the fifteenth century a complete quadrangle had been created. It was not large, being only about two-thirds the size of the present Main Quad.

No trace of Univ’s medieval buildings now survive above ground.