St Luke’s campus of the University of Exeter

The buildings which now form St Luke’s campus of the University of Exeter were first erected between 1852-4 to serve as the training college for the Diocese of Exeter. They were built largely in grey limestone from Torbay with Bath stone dressings. The architect was John Hayward, who was later responsible for the Royal Albert Memorial Museum.

The buildings are in rather plain Gothic style, the internal face shown here being reminiscent of a medieval cloister. They were very badly damaged during the Second World War, when many of the roofs were burnt out, but were reconstructed in the post-war years. Following the war the site was used as a teacher training college, famous for its rugby teams.

Acknowledgments: Exeter City Museums