Events

Unknown, Cardinal Thomas Wolsey, Christ Church

Imagining Wolsey: The Invention of an English Cardinal

Marking the 500th anniversary of the initial founding of Christ Church by Cardinal Thomas Wolsey in 1525, this exhibition will present a range images of the Cardinal from an anonymous Tudor oil portrait to Jonathan Pryce’s representation of him in Wolf Hall.

Without a firmly-secured contemporary portrait of Wolsey, posterity was given a free hand to imagine a Cardinal whose humble beginnings led to a stellar ascent and ended in a dramatic fall from grace and lonely death.

A linocut of St Frideswide by Sally Anne Stewart

Festal Patronal Choral Eucharist for St Frideswide's Day

19 October

Cathedral

Cathedral Service

Gather with us on St Frideswide's day to celebrate the life and legacy of Oxford's patron saint.

Climate Tech Hackathon

24–25 October

Oxford Edge, 37 St Giles

Workshop / Course

Join us for a weekend with passionate climate innovators at the Climate Tech Hackathon, hosted by ZERO Institute, Oxford Edge, and OX1 Incubator. Over two days, you’ll collaborate to tackle urgent climate challenges, gain hands-on mentorship from industry experts, and draw inspiration from leading Climate Tech founders. Bring your ideas and ambition — we’ll give you the platform to make them real

Piano recital: Louise Guy

28 October

Cathedral

Concert / Performance

House Law student Louise Guy presents a programme of Romantic music for Christ Church's 500th anniversary music festival, including Chopin’s Grande Polonaise and Liszt's La Campanella.

Sculpture of John Locke in the Christ Church Library

"To love truth for truth's sake": John Locke and Christ Church

29 October–14 January

Upper Library, Christ Church

Exhibition

The philosopher and political theorist John Locke (1632–1704) is known for his Two Treatises of Government, which became a foundational text for modern western democracy. In May 1652, John Locke was elected to a Studentship at Christ Church, conditionally tenable for life. During the next fifteen years at Oxford, Locke took his degrees (B.A. 1656, M.A. 1658) and fulfilled various college offices. While Censor of Moral Philosophy at Christ Church in 1664 Locke completed the Latin manuscript now known as Essays [or Questions] on the Law of Nature.

Peter Holder in the knave of Christ Church Cathedral

Organ recital: Peter Holder

30 October

Cathedral

Concert / Performance

From African and English folk melodies to an original theme of J. S. Bach – even student drinking songs – this inaugural recital by Peter Holder, Organist of Christ Church, takes the works of four Western composers woven around earlier themes, inspired by the first Organist to be appointed to Cardinal College by Wolsey, John Taverner, and his seminal Mass setting based on the 16C song Western Wynde.