Magdalen Tower

It dominates the eastern entrance to the city, towering over Magdalen Bridge and with good views from the Botanic Garden opposite.

The tower, joined to the south range of college buildings, is built in four storeys unequal in height.

The basement is windowless; the second and third stages have small windows in three sides; the fourth, principal storey is loftier, with a double window on each face divided by a buttress rising through the panelled frieze and mock battlements, where it is surmounted by a figure in a niche crowned by a pinnacle slightly smaller than the four pinnacles that crown the corners.

Large crowds gather in the High Street and on Magdalen Bridge below to listen, before dispersing for other activities such as Morris Dancing.

[3] Extensive restoration to the stone facing of the tower was undertaken in the 1970s since pollution had badly degraded the surface.