Magdalen Tower
The 144-foot perpendicular Gothic tower of Magdalen College (1509) — the centrepiece of the High Street and the gathering point for May Morning.
On May Morning (1 May), the choir of Magdalen College ascends the tower at 06:00 and sings the Hymnus Eucharisticus to a crowd of thousands gathered on the High Street and Magdalen Bridge below. It is one of the largest annual public gatherings in Oxford. The rest of the year, the tower is visible from the Botanic Garden, the bridge, and the High Street.
Magdalen Tower stands at the eastern entry to central Oxford, where the High Street meets Magdalen Bridge over the Cherwell. Built between 1492 and 1509, it is a late-perpendicular Gothic bell tower — the same period and style as the chapel and great quad of the college it belongs to. At 144 feet (44 metres) it is the tallest medieval structure surviving in Oxford.
The tower's most famous association is with May Morning, the annual ceremony at six o'clock on 1 May when the choir of Magdalen College ascends the tower to sing the Hymnus Eucharisticus, composed by Benjamin Rogers (Magdalen organist) in the 1670s. The custom is at least 500 years old. Crowds traditionally gather on the High Street and Magdalen Bridge below, often after dancing through the night at college balls.
The bells in the tower were augmented to a ring of ten in 1986 and are still rung weekly by the Magdalen College Society of Change Ringers.
Nearby
Within a few minutes' walk
