Church of St Peter-le-Bailey

St Peter-le-Bailey
Church of St Peter-le-Bailey
St Peter-le-Bailey, now St Peter's College chapel
Country	United Kingdom
Denomination	Church of England
Website	St Peter's College: chapel
Architecture
Style	Victorian Gothic Revival
Administration
Diocese	Oxford

The Church of St Peter-le-Bailey is a church on New Inn Hall Street in central Oxford, England. It was formerly next to Bonn Square, which was originally the churchyard. Now it is located halfway up New Inn Hall Street to the north. Several churches have existed on or close to the site. The current church is now the chapel of St Peter's College, Oxford.

The church of "St Peter at the Castle", subsequently known as "St Peter-in the-West" or "St Peter-le-Bailey", was granted to St Frideswide's Priory in 1122. The Church of St Peter-le-Bailey has existed in or near the area now known as Bonn Square, since the twelfth century The suffix "le-Bailey" was due to its position close to Oxford Castle. It also distinguished it from Oxford's other church dedicated to St Peter, namely St Peter-in-the-East, near the original east gate of the city, now the library of St Edmund Hall, one of the Oxford University colleges.

The Church of St Peter-le-Bailey existed as a parish church until 1961, when the parish of St Peter-le-Bailey was combined with that of St Ebbe's. Since the inception of the parish, there have been three different church buildings with the name St Peter-le-Bailey.

The first St Peter-le-Bailey church was built in the 12th century. It had a single, pitched-roofed nave with a low tower at the southwest corner. A second church was built on the site of the original church, opening in 1740. It was a flat roofed rectangular building with a tower at the northwest corner. The churchyard remained in its original position since there was no room to expand it. The church remained in use until the middle of the 19th century, when in 1848 Holywell Cemetery, Osney Cemetery, and St Sepulchre's Cemetery opened. In 1855, new burials were forbidden at all city churches, apart from existing vaults. This church was demolished in 1873 as part of a road widening scheme.