English Churches - Oxford
All Saints' Church, Oxford
Once the City Church, but now the library of Lincoln
College
When St Martin’s Church at Carfax was demolished in 1896, All Saint’s became the city church, where the Lord Mayor and Corporation were expected to worship. By the late 1960s, the congregation had dwindled with very few regular members, apart from Civic Services. The church was declared redundant and deconsecrated. It was taken over by the adjacent Lincoln College as part of their library. Unfortunately the College do not let visitors into the library. St Michael at the North Gate became the City Church.
As there are so few pictures showing what the interior of the church looked like, I have scanned these pictures taken by husband using a half frame camera in 1968. He was a regular member of the congregation and PCC secretary when he lived in Oxford.
It was a splendid building, a large open space with wall pillars with elaborately carved capitals soaring up to the roof. The organ was above the west gallery. Behind the altar were boards with the Lord’s Prayer, Creed and Ten Commandments, obligatory in churches at that time. They were set in a splendid portico with gilded angels.
