Lady Margaret Hall admitted its first seven students in October 1879. They pioneered women's higher education in Oxford, entering a world of learning that had for centuries been a male monopoly. When the College celebrated its centenary, the foundation seven had increased to four hundred, including postgraduate as well as undergraduate students.

The first addition to the original north Oxford villa (Old Hall) was opened as early as 1881, and the site was progressively developed to accommodate the growing community of students. LMH now boasts a collection of fine buildings by major architects set in twelve acres of beautiful gardens extending to the banks of the river Cherwell.

Highly qualified LMH women continued the pioneering tradition of the first students, helping gradually to open education, medicine, the arts, science, law, commerce, and government service to women alongside men.

By 1979, when the College entered its second century, Oxford University had changed dramatically. Nearly all the former men's Colleges had begun admitting women. In these transformed circumstances the Fellows of LMH chose to give new form to the original idea of equal opportunity. Henceforth the College would select its students on academic merit alone, regardless of gender.

Since 1979, the College has provided a very special educational experience within a genuinely co-educational community, profoundly influenced by its own previous history of women's education.