, a leading member of the
Oxford Movement, after whom the college is named The best-known of Keble's
Victorian founders was
Edward Pusey, after whom the Pusey quad and Pusey room are named. The college first opened in 1870, taking in thirty students, whilst the chapel was opened on St Mark's Day 1876. Accordingly, the college continues to celebrate St Mark's Day each year. Butterfield produced a notable example of
Victorian Gothic architecture, among his few secular buildings, which
Pevsner characterised as "actively ugly", and which, according to
Charles Eastlake, defied criticism. The social historian
G. M. Trevelyan expressed the then commonly held, and highly dismissive, view: "the monstrosities of architecture erected by order of the dons of Oxford and Cambridge colleges in the days of William Butterfield and
Alfred Waterhouse give daily pain to posterity." Sir
Kenneth Clark recalled that during his Oxford years it was generally believed in Oxford not only that Keble College was "the ugliest building in the world" but that its architect was
John Ruskin, author of
The Stones of Venice. The college is built of red, blue, and white bricks; the main structure is of red brick, with white and blue patterned banding. The builders were Parnell & Son of Rugby. On its construction, Keble was not always admired within the university. Undergraduates at St John's College started the
Destroy Keble Society, which aimed to dismantle the college brick by brick. An apocryphal story claims that a French visitor, on first sight of the college exclaimed ''C'est magnifique mais ce n'est pas la gare?'' ("It is magnificent but is it not the railway station?"). This is a play on Field Marshal
Pierre Bosquet's memorable line, referring to the
Charge of the Light Brigade, ''C'est magnifique, mais ce n'est pas la guerre'' ("It is magnificent, but it is not war"). This story may have been borrowed from
Arthur Wing Pinero's identical quip said to have been made at the opening ceremony for the
Royal Courts of Justice in London. Keble is mentioned in
John Betjeman's poem "Myfanwy at Oxford", as well as in the writings of
John Ruskin and in
Monty Python's "Travel Agent" sketch.
Horace Rumpole, the barrister in
John Mortimer's books, was a Law graduate of Keble. In 2005, Keble College featured in the national UK press when its bursar, Roger Boden, was found guilty of racial discrimination by an employment tribunal. An appeal was launched by the college and Boden against the tribunal's judgement, resulting in a financial out-of-court settlement with the aggrieved employee. In Christmas of 2017, a team of alumni from Keble College won the
Christmas University Challenge, a seasonal programme on BBC2. They beat the
University of Reading by 240 points to 0 in the final, the only time a team has ever failed to score a point. ==Buildings==