Keble College was founded in 1870 as a monument to The Oxford Movement, an affiliation of Anglicans who sought to prove that the origins of the modern Church of England were directly traceable back to the Apostles. The polychrome brick construction (innovative or ghastly, depending on personal taste) is a striking example of Victorian Gothic architecture, contrasting vividly inside the college with the slanted glass panels of the 1960s-built Hayward and De Breyne buildings (which bear more than a passing resemblance to a flying saucer).

The interior decorations (mosaics and stained glass windows) of the Chapel are designed to illustrate the successive dealings of God beginning with Noah and Moses and working through the New Testament to the promised Second Coming. Holman Hunt's picture 'The Light of the World' is on view in the Liddon Memorial Chapel. There are also fine portraits of Keble and Pusey (key figures of the Oxford Movement) in the Dining Hall.