In 1985, the college became the last all-male college in Oxford to start to admit women for matriculation as undergraduates. In 1984, the Senior Common Room voted 23–4 to admit women undergraduates from 1986. The Junior Common Room president believed that "the distinctive character of the college will be undermined".
A second feast day was added in 2007 by a benefaction from George Moody, formerly of Oriel, to be celebrated on or near St George's Day (23 April). The only remaining gaudy had then been Candlemas; the new annual dinner was to be known as the St. George's Day Gaudy. The dinner is black tie and gowns, and by request of the benefactor, the main course will normally be goose.
Buildings and environs
First Quad (Front Quad)
thumb|right|East range of First Quad; the ornate [[portico in the centre leads into a hall, the doors on either side lead to the undercroft (left) and chapel (right).]]
The Oriel Street site was acquired between 1329 and 1392.
Behind the high table is a portrait of Edward II; underneath is a longsword brought to the college in 1902 after being preserved for many years on one of the college's estates at Swainswick, near Bath. On either side are portraits of Sir Walter Raleigh and Joseph Butler. The other portraits around the hall include other prominent members of Oriel such as Matthew Arnold, Thomas Arnold, James Anthony Froude, John Keble, John Henry Newman, Richard Whately and John Robinson. In 2002, the college commissioned one of the largest portraits of Queen Elizabeth II, measuring , from Jeff Stultiens to hang in the hall; the painting was unveiled the following year.
The stained glass in the windows display the coats of arms of benefactors and distinguished members of the college; three of the windows were designed by Ninian Comper.
The bronze lectern was given to the college in 1654. The black and white marble paving dates from 1677 to 1678. Except for the pews on the west, dating from 1884, the panelling, stalls and screens are all 17th-century, as are the altar and carved communion rails. Behind the altar is the oil-on-panel painting The Carrying of the Cross, also titled Christ Falls, with the Cross, before a City Gate, by the Flemish Renaissance painter Bernard van Orley. A companion piece to the painting is in the National Gallery of Scotland. The organ case dates from 1716; originally designed by Christopher Schreider for St Mary Abbots Church, Kensington, it was acquired by Oriel in 1884.
<!--In the north-west window of the gallery there is a small piece of late medieval glass, a figure of Saint Margaret of Antioch. In the south window of the gallery there is a painted window of the Presentation of Jesus at the Temple, executed by William Peckitt of York. It was originally set in the east window in 1767; a later version of his work can be seen in the chapel of New College, Oxford. The rest of the stained glass is Victorian: the earliest is on the easternmost part of the south side; the rest date from after the 1884 restorations by Powell.
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Above the entrance to the chapel is an oriel that, until the 1880s, was a room on the first floor that formed part of a set of rooms that were occupied by Richard Whately, and later by Saint John Henry Newman. Whately is said to have used the space as a larder and Newman is said to have used it for his private prayers – when the organ was installed in 1884, the space was used for the blower. The wall that once separated the room from the ante-chapel was removed, making it accessible from the chapel. The organ was built by J. W. Walker & Sons in 1988;
Second Quad (Back Quad)
thumb|Designed by [[James Wyatt and completed in 1796, this building houses the senior common rooms and library.]]
Originally a garden, the demand for more accommodation for undergraduates in the early 18th century resulted in two free-standing blocks being built. The first block erected was the Robinson Building on the east side, built in 1720 by Bishop Robinson at the suggestion of his wife, as the inscription over the door records. Its twin block, the Carter Building, was erected on the west side in 1729, as a result of a benefaction by Provost Carter. The two buildings stood for nearly a hundred years as detached blocks in the garden, and the architectural elements of First Quad are repeated on them – only here the seven gables are all alike. Between 1817 and 1819, The two-storey building has rusticated arches on the ground floor and a row of Ionic columns above, dividing the façade into seven bays – the ground floor contains the first purpose-built senior common rooms in Oxford, above is the library.
The staircases of the interior façade are decorated with cartouches similar to those found in First Quad, and likewise bear the arms of important figures in the college's history; (13) Sir Walter Raleigh who was an undergraduate from 1572 to 1574, (14) John Keble who was a fellow between 1811 and 1835, (archway) Edward Hawkins who was provost from 1828 until 1882 and (15) Gilbert White who was an undergraduate from 1739 until 1743 and a fellow from 1744 until 1793.
The building was not entirely well received; William Sherwood, Mayor of Oxford and Master of Magdalen College School, wrote: "Oriel [has] broken out into the High, ... destroying a most picturesque group of old houses in so doing, and, to put it gently, hardly compensating us for their removal."
Statue of Cecil Rhodes
thumb|upright|The statue of Rhodes
On the side facing the High Street, there is a statue of Oriel graduate Cecil Rhodes over the main entrance, with Edward VII and George V beneath. These formed part of a group of seven statues commissioned for the building from the sculptor Henry Pegram. The inscription reads: "", which, as well as acknowledging Rhodes's munificence, is a chronogram giving the date of construction, 1911.
The statue has been the subject of protests for several years in the wake of the Rhodes Must Fall movement in 2015. Hundreds of protestors again demanded its removal in June 2020, in the wake of the removal of the statue of Edward Colston in Bristol a few days previously. The statues had been targeted during the protests that arose following the murder of George Floyd in the United States. On 20 May 2021, however, the college decided not to remove the statue despite the majority of members of a commission to decide its future recommending removal; Oriel College cited costs and "complex" planning procedures. Roughly 150 Oxford lecturers stated they will not teach Oriel students more than is required in their contracts in protest at the decision to keep the statue.
Island Site (O'Brien Quad)
This is a convex quadrilateral of buildings, bordered by the High Street, and the meeting of Oriel Street and King Edward Street in Oriel Square. The site took six hundred years to acquire and although it contains teaching rooms and the Harris Lecture Theatre, it is largely given over to accommodation.
On the High Street, No. 106 and 107 stand on the site of Tackley's Inn; built around 1295, In 1985, funded by a gift from Edgar O'Brien and £10,000 from the Pilgrim Trust, Kylyngworth's was refurbished along with Nos. 10, 9 and 7.
right|thumb|On the first floor of No. 6 [[King Edward Street is a portrait bust of former student and benefactor Cecil Rhodes.]]
King Edward Street was created by the college between 1872 and 1873 when 109 and 110 High Street were demolished. The old shops on each side of the road were pulled down and rebuilt, and to preserve the continuity, the new shops were numbered 108 and 109–112. Named after the college's founder, the road was opened in 1873. On the wall of the first floor of No. 6, there is a large metal plaque with a portrait of Cecil Rhodes; underneath is the inscription:
<blockquote>In this house, the Rt. Hon Cecil John Rhodes kept academical residence in the year 1881. This memorial is erected by Alfred Mosely in recognition of the great services rendered by Cecil Rhodes to his country.</blockquote>
In the centre of the quad is the Harris Building, formerly Oriel court, a real tennis court where Charles I played tennis with his nephew Prince Rupert in December 1642 and King Edward VII had his first tennis lesson in 1859. The building was in use as a lecture hall by 1923, and after modernisation between 1991 and 1994, funded by Sir Philip and Lady Harris, contains accommodation, a seminar room and the college's main lecture theatre. The bronze plaque in the lobby commemorates his father, Captain Charles William Harris, after whom the building is named. The building was opened by John Major, then Prime Minister, on 10 August 1993.
Rectory Road
left|thumb|Rectory Road's Goldie Wing is one of the remaining buildings of a former convent.
Bordered by the Cowley Road, this site was formerly Nazareth House, a residential care home convent – Goldie Wing and Larmenier House are its surviving buildings. Nazareth House itself was demolished to make room for two purpose-built halls of residence, James Mellon Hall and David Paterson House. The two new halls were opened by Queen Elizabeth II on 8 November 2000.
As it is about ten minutes' walk from college and more peaceful than the middle of the city, it has become the principal choice of accommodation for Oriel's graduates and finalists. The site has its own common rooms, squash court, gymnasium and support staff.
Bartlemas
Bartlemas is a conservation area that incorporates the remaining buildings of a leper hospital founded by Henry I; it includes the sports grounds for Oriel, Jesus and Lincoln Colleges, along with landscaping for wildlife and small scale urban development.
[[File:Old leper Hospital of St. Bartholomew, Oxford. Wellcome M0003622EB.jpg|thumb|
Old leper Hospital of St. Bartholomew, Oxford
]]
In 1326 Provost Adam de Brome was appointed warden of St Bartholomew's; In 1649 the college rebuilt the main hospital range north of the chapel, destroyed in the Civil War, as a row of four almshouses, called Bartlemas House. Bartlemas Chapel and two farm cottages are the other extant buildings.
Filming location
The buildings of Oriel College were used as a location for Hugh Grant's first film, Privileged (1982), as well as Oxford Blues (1984), True Blue (1991) and The Dinosaur Hunter (2000). The television crime series Inspector Morse used the college in the episodes "Ghost in the Machine" (under the name of "Courtenay College"), "The Silent World of Nicholas Quinn", "The Infernal Serpent", "Deadly Slumber", "Twilight of the Gods" and "Death is now My Neighbour", In the ITV crime drama Chancer, the third quad was used in the episode "Trust" (1990).
Heraldry
thumb|200px|Oriel's [[coat of arms on a roof boss]]
thumb|200px|Relief sculpture of the [[Prince of Wales's feathers, a heraldic badge used by the college, on the main gate]]
The college's coat of arms are blazoned: "Gules, three lions passant guardant or within a bordure engrailed argent". The blazoning was recorded at the Visitation of 1574.
The Prince of Wales's feathers, often adopted as insignia by members of the college, appear as decorative elements within the college buildings and appear on the official college tie. It probably represents Edward, the Black Prince, Prince of Wales, who first adopted the device, the senior grandson of King Edward II, although it may represent King Charles I, who was Prince of Wales when the building of First Quad began in the 17th century.
In 2009, the College of Arms granted the college the use of a heraldic badge, particularly for the boat club and the Tortoise Club, a society of college rowing alumni. The badge is blazoned: "A tortoise displayed the shell circular azure charged with two concentric annulets argent".
Prayer and graces
One of the following two college prayers is recited by the provost or the senior fellow present at the conclusion of Evensong on Sundays and other services: