[7] It was established with a fund of £50,000 to provide a building for Pusey's library, purchase it and create an endowment so that two or more clergy could take charge of it and promote religious life in the university.

Edward King, Bishop of Lincoln, famously quipped that "Brightman would dust the books, Gore would read them, and Coles would talk about them.

"[12] During the principalship of Darwell Stone, a new building was commissioned which was eventually designed by Temple Moore, a leading Anglo-Catholic architect of his time.

[13] The house continued its work as the centre of Anglo-Catholicism in Oxford in the new buildings, attracting undergraduates including John Betjeman and Harold Macmillan.

[15] In 1910, the governors took advantage of the falling in of a lease at a neighbouring townhouse which was subsequently bought and demolished to make way for the new buildings.The principal at the time, Darwell Stone, requested that the new building should include a chapel "of good and simple architecture to hold about 200 and a side chapel to hold about thirty" alongside lecture rooms, domestic ranges, a library, and museum.

[15] Four architects were approached to submit designs: Harold Brakspear, Walter Tapper, Giles Gilbert Scott, and Temple Moore.

[15] Moore designed a large Gothic building around a quadrangle, its centrepiece being the two vaulted chapels separated by a stone pulpitum which he based on those found in 'medieval Franciscan priories'.

[1] The south range of the quadrangle remained unexecuted at the time of Moore's death in 1920, and was only finished in 1925 to sympathetic designs by John Coleridge.

[17] Comper's work in the chapel included the construction of a gilded baldacchino surmounted by the resurrected Christ and attendant angels, and the stained glass in the east window.

The choir's repertoire is made up of predominantly chant, Renaissance polyphony, such as that by Byrd, Tallis and Lassus, as well as later Romantic and Modern composers of English church music, Stanford, Bairstow, and Peter Tranchell.

One musical highlight of the year is the choral Communion on the feast of Charles, King and Martyr according to the 1662 Book of Common Prayer.

This service normally features Tudor and Jacobean and Early English Baroque music works, and choral responses to the Commandments.

The office of priest librarian dates from the foundation of the house in 1884- the following is an incomplete list of those who have served in this role:Those marked with an asterisk acted as library custodian.