After the inauguration of the superb new Eule organ at Magdalen College Oxford on 21st January (a truly splendid and memorable occasion) I stayed overnight in my alma mater, New College, waking to a sharp and freezingly frosty Sunday morning. Here are two images taken at 08:00 that day of the ‘New Buildings’ built in the 19th century outside the old City Wall which formerly bounded the College on the north side. I had rooms from 1971-4 on staircase 3.
Also visible are the City Wall itself (none of it to be seen remaining anywhere else in Oxford other than skirting two complete sides of New College), the bell tower (built shortly after the College’s foundation by William of Wykeham in 1379) and part of the north wall and antechapel of the college chapel, my inspiring musical home for those three years. The third image here is the rather startling sight of the new Magdalen College organ, dramatically lit for 45 minutes of solo organ music before its dedicatory Evensong.
