Charsley's Hall was a private hall of the University of Oxford. After 1891, it was renamed Marcon's Hall.
The hall was established in 1862 by William Henry Charsley, formerly of Christ Church,Christopher Hibbert (ed.), "Private halls" in The Encyclopaedia of Oxford (London: Macmillan, 1988), p. 337Kelly's directory of Berkshire, Bucks and Oxon (Kelly's directories, 1883), p. 640: "... a private hall under licence from the Vice-Chancellor... There are now two of these: Charsley's Hall, in the Parks road, William Henry Charsley MA late of Christ Church, licensed master..." under the university statute De Aulis Privatis (On private halls), passed in 1855. The statute allowed any Master of Arts or other member of Convocation aged at least twenty-eight to open a private hall after obtaining a licence to do so.William Geddie, Chambers's Encyclopaedia, Volume 7 (1874), p. 174: "To these may be added Charsley's Hall, being a private hall under the mastership of WH Charsley, in virtue of a statute passed in 1854..." The hall was in what is now 10 Parks Road, at the eastern corner of Museum Road, on the other side of the road from the Oxford University Museum.The pictorial and historical gossiping guide to Oxford James J. Moore, Herbert Hurst (A. Thos. Shrimpton & Son, 1889), p. 149Physics in Oxford, 1839-1939: Laboratories, Learning and College Life Robert Fox, Graeme Gooday (eds.) (Oxford University Press, 2005), p. 67 It was a red-brick Victorian house designed by Charles Buckeridge and built in 1862.Jennifer Sherwood, Nikolaus Pevsner The Buildings of England: Oxfordshire (Penguin Books, 1974) p. 276 At the 1871 census, it contained nine residents.Digest of the English Census of 1871 (Adamant Media reprint, 2004), p. 78
Charsley's Hall had no published tuition fees, members elected their tutors and made their own payment arrangements, although the terms were generally higher than elsewhere. Despite this, the hall was popular.Edwin Wooton, A guide to degrees in arts, science, literature, law, music, and divinity, in the United Kingdom, the colonies, the continent and the United States (L. Upcott Gill, 1883), p. 39: "At Charsley's Hall the members elect their own tutors, with whom they make their own arrangements." One writer noted in 1883
By 1889, migration to Charsley's was seen as a way of circumventing some requirements of the colleges, and its demise was prematurely foreseen by The Oxford Magazine.
Charsley's Hall features several times in The Lay of the First Minstrel, a parody of Sir Walter Scott dating from the 1870s, beginning:
In 1889–1890 Charsley's had forty-seven undergraduates, while Turrell's, the only other private hall, had seven.Paul John Rich, Creating the Arabian Gulf (1991), p. 231: "CHARSLEY HALL Oxford... private halls licensed by the Vice Chancellor. In 1889-90 there were two: Charsley's with 47 undergraduates, and Turrell's with 8. The Master, William Henry Charsley, appears to have kept a school for boys as well as a house of the university. This is suggested as a reason for matriculations at Charsley's at an unusually young age. By the end of 1891 Charsley's Hall had closed,Maggie Macdonald, Oxford University Archives, quoted in Paul John Rich, Creating the Arabian Gulf (1991), pp. 231–232: "It is my guess that W. H. Charsley, the licensed master, in addition to teaching undergraduates as in a College, also taught younger boys, i.e. he ran a school. There was at least one other 14-year-old from Charsley's matriculating at the same time as Stewart. The Hall itself had ceased to operate by the end of 1891." to be reopened by Charles Abdy Marcon as Marcon's Hall in 1892.T. H. Aston, Brian Harrison, The History of the University of Oxford, vol. 7, Nineteenth-Century Oxford, Part 2 (1994), p. 120 Marcon had himself been educated at Charsley's.Whitaker's Almanack for 1897, p. 258
Whitaker's Almanack for 1897 lists three private halls in the university, based on the University Calendar for 1895: Marcon's, Turrell's and Grindle's. Marcon's continued under that name until C. A. Marcon retired in 1918.'MARCON, Charles Abdy', in Crockford's Clerical Directory (1930)
Notable people William Morfill taught philosophy and modern history at Charsley's between 1865 and 1869 Edward John Payne completed his first degree at Charsley's in 1871 Charles Abdy Marcon, who took his first degree from Charsley's in 1878, succeeded W. H. Charsley as Master in 1891
References