Magdalen Bridge
Eleven-arched Georgian stone crossing over the Cherwell, crowded at dawn each May Morning.
Location
About this audio guide
This guide to Magdalen Bridge in Oxford is about the dawn of the first of May, when thousands crowd the bridge to hear Magdalen College choir sing from its tower. It reaches back to the antiquarian Anthony Wood in the sixteen nineties and to a rowdy early eighteenth-century ceremony that a Victorian fellow called irreverent. Along the way come students, the shallow River Cherwell, and the city's early-morning appetite. Best heard leaning on the balustrade, with the tower in view.
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