The Clarendon Building was built between 1711 and 1715 to house Oxford University Press, which had previously occupied rooms in the Sheldonian Theatre. In 1829, the University police took over part of the Clarendon Building, with the cells located in the basement. The building now houses the Bodleian Library’s Admissions Department. These gates, from Broad Street, form part of a series of four other arched gates connecting Broad Street and Radciffe Square, via the quad of the Old Bodleian. The gates are rarely locked during the day; here the porter comes to unlock them after the ceremony of Encaenia.

Photograph © Martin Anderson, June 2014