University College

The massive stone walls of University College are carved with grotesque faces, animals, and intricate foliage that break the rigid lines of the Romanesque revival architecture. Built in eighteen fifty-nine, it served as the original secular heart of the university when most institutions were strictly religious. A devastating fire tore through the interior in eighteen ninety, leaving only the shell standing. A student named Barker Fairley later claimed the college’s ghost, a stonemason named Diabolus, haunts the tower after a tragic heartbreak.