Magdalen Tower
bell tower at Magdalen College, Oxford
Magdalen Tower, completed in 1509, is a bell tower that forms part of Magdalen College, Oxford. It is a central focus for the celebrations in Oxford on May Morning.
History
Magdalen Tower is one of the oldest parts of Magdalen College, Oxford, situated directly on the High Street. Built of stone from 1492, when the foundation stone was laid by Dr Richard Mayew, the College President, on 9 August. The tower's bells hung ready for use in 1505, and it was completed by 1509. The tower is a prominent element of the historic central Oxford skyline. At 144 feet (44 m) high, it is the tallest building in Oxford. 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 of unequal height. Octagonal turrets encase the corners; the slightly larger northwest turret encloses the spiral stair, lit by slit windows.
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Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 23, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q6729839. Authority coordinates are 51.752, -1.247. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1509, 1492 and 1505.
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This entry incorporates text from “Magdalen Tower” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.