Foxhill House

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Foxhill House, University of Reading, July 2006

Foxhill House is a Gothic revival style building on the Whiteknights campus of the University of Reading at Earley, adjoining the English town of Reading. It was originally built by the famous architect Alfred Waterhouse in 1868 as his own residence and was later occupied by Rufus Isaacs, 1st Marquess of Reading.

Used for a period as student accommodation, Foxhill House was extensively restored between 2003 and 2005, and is now the home of the University's School of Law.

It has been rumoured that British occultist Aleister Crowley spent time living at Foxhill House, a rumour that may be part of the wider rumours of strange goings on at the building, including one that it was built by Satanists. Given that Alfred Waterhouse was actually a prominent Quaker, it is possible that these rumours are a throw-back to the religious prejudices of the time the house was built. It should be noted however that some of the architecture is rather strange - in particular the decoration on the stairwells (inverted pentagrams) and the stained glass window, which is supposedly a representation of the devil