Oxford - Magdalen College

Magdalen Bridge leads across the River Cherwell. It was built in 1772 and widened in 1883.

Magdalen Tower, in late Perpendicular style, was built between 1482 and 1504. Under the Muniment Tower is the entrance to the Chapel, where evensong is sung by the college's renowned choir during the University term. In the Founder's Tower are the state apartments, with early 16th century tapestries. The passage under this tower leads into the cloisters, with grotesque figures known as "hieroglyphs". Beyond the college stretches a deer park called the Grove. A bridge in the park leads over the Cherwell into the Water Walks, one of which is known as Addison's Walk. (The writer Joseph Addison (1672-1719) was a member of Magdalen, as were Oscar Wilde and King Edward VII.)

Beyond the Magdalen Bridge, in Cowley Place, is St Hilda's College (1893), the only college exclusively for women.

Opposite the entrance to Magdalen College is the Oxford University Botanic Garden, one of the oldest in England, founded in 1621. Plants of every conceivable kind, from all over the world, are to be seen here. The Magdalen Rose Garden was a gift from the Albert and Mary Lasker Foundation of New York (1953) to commemorate the development of penicillin, in which Oxford played a considerable part. The drug was first used in the Radcliffe Infirmary.