St Mary the Virgin University Church
Oxford, Oxfordshire
There has been a church on this site for a thousand years, standing in the very centre of the ancient walled city of Oxford.
St Columba's has its origin in a chaplaincy to Presbyterian students founded in 1908. The church building was opened in 1915, and the modern extension was built in the 1960s.
The original architect was TP Figgis, who built other churches for the Presbyterian Church of England and stations on the Northern line of the London Underground.
There is stained glass by Theodora Salusbury. Agnes Smith Lewis and Margaret Dunlop Gibson (the 'Sisters of the Sinai' who discovered ancient texts at St Catherine's monastery) were early donors. Memorials to students and others associated with the church who died in the first and second world wars are a striking feature of the main sanctuary.