The Indian Institute (now the home of the History Faculty) was designed by Basil Champneys. The photograph used on the above postcard probably dates from soon after 1896 when the building was completed. The picture below shows the same view today: note that the ornamentation above the first-floor windows has disappeared, and the way that Hertford College crept northwards in 1923 to become the Institute's semi-detached neighbour, matching it in height.

In June 1881, when plans were submitted to Hebdomadal Council for the building of an Indian Institute, this important central site was occupied by four old buildings.

On the corner of Holywell Street was 34Broad Street, a large, handsome, early eighteenth-century house that may have been designed by Vanbrugh and was at one time Seal's Coffee House (although in its latter years it had been a private house, occupied by Professor Donkin). At No. 33 next door was a smaller private house. The leases on these two properties expired almost immediately, and the two bays on the left of the above picture, built by Simm & Co., were opened by Benjamin Jowett in 1884.

No. 32 was occupied by George T. Prior's chemist's shop, and No. 32 by F.&H. Bacon, Accountants, and their leases did not expire until 1892. Hence the three bays on the right, built by Parnell, were not opened by Lord George Hamilton, Secretary of State for India, until 1896, twelve years later.

he total cost of the building was £21,772.

The layout of the Indian Institute building is fully described in the following extract from Kelly's Directory for 1900:

"The Indian Institute, situated on the corner of Holywell street and Broad street, on a site purchased from the Warden and Fellows of Merton College and erected in 1882-3, was first projected in 1875 by Sir Monier Monier-Williams K.C.I.E., Boden Professor of Sanscrit, who, in the autumn of that year, and again in 1876 and 1883, undertook a journey to India for the purpose of obtaining the sympathy and aid of the Indian people and government in the establishment, within the university, of an institution especially devoted to Indian studies: this enterprise met with considerable encouragement, and the proposal has since received the approval and support of H.M. the Empress of India, H.R.H. the Prince of Wales and other distinguished persons, and the subscriptions amounted in 1883 to more than £22,000.

Of the [four] houses removed, one standing at the corner, known for many years as "Seal's Coffee House", and more recently the residence of the late Professor Donkin, was built by Sir John Vanbrugh, the architect of Blenheim palace; the new structure, completed in 1895, is constructed of Taynton stone in the Elizabethan style, from designs by Mr. Basil Champneys, architect, London: the main entrance is in Broad street, and at the north-west angle, at the junction of the two streets, there is a round tower, decorated in the second stage with scroll works and festoons, above which is an entablature, supporting a lantern storey, relieved by columns, and terminating in a cupola.

The arrangements as to the interior comprise, in the basement, a large lecture room, capable of seating an audience of about 400, besides an annexe to the library, lavatories, kitchen, storeroom &c., and on the ground floor a lecture room, librarian's private room, reading room, porter's lodge and vestibule: on the first floor fire-proof library with five oriel windows overlooking Broad street, a typical Indian museum and two lecture rooms: on the second floor a continuation of these departments, with two lecture rooms, and above this, bedrooms.

According to the scheme, the Institute, as opportunity offers, invites distinguished Indian administrators, and able Orientalists and Indologists of all nationalities, as well as eminent natives of India who may visit this country, to deliver addresses in its lecture rooms or library, where conferences and social gatherings are occasionally held with a view to more united action in arousing an interest in Oriental subjects and in making England and India better acquainted with each other; it also aims at drawing together and assisting the selected candidates for the Civil Service of India, who are required to reside at a University, and offers advantages to all native students from India who occasionally matriculate at Oxford, and who are likely hereafter to frequent the University in greater numbers than they have hitherto done.

The library is open in vacation as well as during full term from 10a.m. to 1p.m. and the Museum from 10a.m. to 4 or 6p.m. The building is closed from 16Aug. to 14Sept. and on certain special days. A.A. Macdonell M.A., ph.d acting keeper; W.A. Symonds esq. assistant keeper and librarian"

The aim of the Indian Institute was "the work of fostering and facilitating Indian studies in the University; the work of making Englishmen, and even Indians themselves, appreciate better than they have done before the languages, literature and industries of India". As well as a library and lecture rooms, it contained a museum, some of whose contents are now in the Ashmolean.