10. College buildings

The new catalogue of architectural papers (FA), created in 1997-9, contains more detailed information on buildings and their architects. This catalogue is searchable on Adlib.

See also Roger White and Robin Darwall-Smith, The Architectural Drawings of Magdalen College Oxford: A Catalogue (Oxford, 2001), as well as L. W. B. Brockliss (ed.), Magdalen College Oxford: A History (Oxford, 2008). White and Darwall-Smith's catalogue is arranged by architect, rather than building, and supplies more biographical data about each of them.

10.1 INTRODUCTION

Magdalen College was built on the site of the thirteenth-century Hospital of St John the Baptist, and parts of the hospital buildings were incorporated into the College, in the High Street range for example, and most visibly today in the building known as the Old Kitchen. The central College block, built around monastic-style cloisters, consisted of the Chapel, Hall, Library, Founders Tower and Muniment Tower, erected between 1473 and about 1510; the last building in this phase was the Great Tower, added between 1492 and 1509.

Minor alterations and additions were made during the seventeenth century. Additions included the Grammar Hall in St John's Quadrangle, dated 1614, the Kitchen Staircase and new stables, added in 1635, and a Baroque gateway erected at about the same time, which was the main entrance into St John's Quadrangle from Gravel Walk. The Chapel interior was re-furnished in Laudian style in the 1630s and the High Street facade, west of the Tower, was rebuilt in 1665.

By the early eighteenth century the original Cloister buildings were dilapidated and the Fellows and Gentleman Commoners wanted more spacious and luxurious accommodation. The ideas of the President, Fellows and architects of the day were ambitious, extending to the demolition of most of the original buildings except the Great Tower, Hall and Chapel. The New Buildings erected from 1733 onwards to Holdsworth's design were intended to be the first stage of a Great Quadrangle, to which would be added a new Library and Lodgings and a new entrance from Longwall. This plan was never perfected, although a number of architects submitted plans, and the only other changes during the eighteenth century were alterations to the Lodgings, by Keene, and the Chapel, by Wyatt.

In 1820 a fire destroyed most of Magdalen Hall, which then moved from its site adjoining Magdalen College to Catte Street. This created a new possibility of expanding westwards towards Longwall. The Longwall area itself was at first occupied by the College School, for which J. C. Buckler designed a new Schoolroom in 1849. The fashion for Gothic architecture led to a refurnishing of the Chapel by L. N. Cottingham in 1830, and in the same decade a Gothic Revival gateway by Pugin replaced the baroque gateway at the western entrance, but this, too was taken down in the 1880s, to make way for St Swithuns Quadrangle. When St Swithuns was completed, the Lodgings were rebuilt by the same architects, Bodley and Garner, and a new southern entrance by the same architects was added.

During the 1920s, the College School moved from the College site to a the boarding house site (built in 1894) in Cowley Place; the Schoolroom was then converted into a New Library for the College and Longwall Quadrangle was built, to the design of Sir Giles Gilbert Scott. This work was finished by 1930, completing the pre-1945 set of buildings.

A general description of the architecture is given by the Royal Commission on Historical Monuments, England, in An Inventory of the Historical Monuments in the City of Oxford (London: His Majesty's Stationery Office, 1939). For the architects see Howard Colvin, A Biographical Dictionary of British Architects, 1600-1840 (London: John Murray, 1978 edn) and Tanis Hinchcliffe, North Oxford (New Haven & London: Yale University Press, 1992). For a concise account of the architectural changes at Magdalen see Roger White, 'The Architectural Evolution of Magdalen College', published in Interventions in Historic Centres: the Buildings of Magdalen College, Oxford (London: Academy Editions, 1993), 14-37. The same volume, pp. 46-57, contains illustrations showing the new quadrangle adjoining Longwall (Grove Buildings,1996) by Demetri Porphyrios Associates. Howard Colvin's Unbuilt Oxford (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1983) is essential reading, as is T. S. R. Boase, 'An Oxford College and the Gothic Revival', Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, 18 (1955), 145-88. J. C. Buckler's anonymous, acerbic volume of Observations on the Original Architecture of St Mary Magdalen College , Oxford and on the Innovations Anciently or Recently Attempted (London: John Nicholson, 1823) has recently been set in its context by C. A. M. Euston, 'The Buckler Family and Magdalen College, Oxford' (unpublished master's thesis, University of London,1993), which is available for consulation in the archives. For Magdalen-related plans at Worcester College see H. M. Colvin, A Catalogue of the Architectural Drawings of the 18th and 19th Centuries in the Library of Worcester College, Oxford (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1964). Other publications are cited in the relevant section.

10.2 PLANS AND DRAWINGS: GENERAL

10.2.1 INTRODUCTION

The archives contain a fine collection of architectural drawings of the 18th-20th centuries. Originally access to the drawings had been hampered by their scattered, random placing, often in bound volumes. However, these volumes have mostly been dismembered, and the new catalogue has attempted to make access to the papers easier.

As well as plans drawn up by College architects such as John Buckler and Joseph Parkinson, schemes were submitted by many other architects of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The archives collection now includes plans and drawings by Bodley & Garner, John Chessell Buckler, Burrough, Cottingham, Goodwin, Harrison, Hawksmoor, Keene, Nash, Repton, George Gilbert Scott, Giles Gilbert Scott, Street, Wilkinson and Wyatt. The College's collections of framed watercolours include further designs by L. C. Cottingham and T. Allom.

10.2.2 PRESIDENT'S COLLECTION

Recataloguing the collection has meant the creation of a fresh set of references (a concordance between these and the older references is available).

The provenance of most of the items which originally bore the reference codes A-F is that they were sent originally to the President of the day and were housed in the Old Library. They are now in the archives. For many years a card index, probably compiled by President T. S. R. Boase, had been the best starting point for access to these.

Boase had referred to the following call numbers/ reference codes and other means of identification:

F.1-XV : Large guard books containing plans and drawings mixed in with prints, photographs and other papers. The work of a single architect, e.g. John Buckler, may be scattered through a number of F. volumes and in other sections of the collection. Items from most of these volumes have now been separately mounted after cleaning and repairs, and re-arranged.

'Case': Single items now numbered A -E and stored in solander boxes.

'Fd.': Framed items in care of Vice-President, who maintains a list of their whereabouts (not available to the public).

'Günther': Album of prints and photographs only, now MS 1107.

This list has been replaced by the new catalogue.

10.2.3 BURSARY PLANS

From c. 1875 onwards architectural plans were sent to the Bursary. Most of the extant Bursary plans dated 1939 or earlier have now been transferred to the archives at various times, and these had been assigned MP/1 and MP/3 reference codes, as part of a mixed collection of maps and plans. A catalogue of MP/1 items (ms) was compiled by Francis Steer in 1977, and a card catalogue of MP/3 items was begun in the early 1980s and continues. Several items from the MP sequence have been recatalogued; the concordance shows which drawings originated from these source.

10.2.4 TOPOGRAPHICAL PRINTS AND DRAWINGS

The catalogue of architectural papers includes many topographical prints and engravings. Unpublished sketches by Buckler can also be found interleaved in J. R. Bloxam's copies of his biographical Register, MS 881 (esp. volume 3), and in Bloxam's three ms volumes on the Presidents of Magdalen, MS 655.

10.2.5 CORRESPONDENCE

FA16/1/C1/1 is an important collection of letters and related papers concerning the attempts to rebuild the College from the 1780s to the 1840s.

Several correspondence files on the College's buildings, especially Longwall Quadrangle, and the creation of the New Library, which date from the 1920s and later, have been transferred from the Bursary as Accession Nos. 00/111. These records have not been catalogued, but a summary list is available.

10.3 ARCHITECTURAL PLANS, PRINTS AND DRAWINGS, (A) ARRANGED BY PLACE

10.3.1 ST JOHN'S HOSPITAL: SURVIVING FEATURES

Documents relating to the Hospital are listed at FA2.

See R. T. Günther, 'On the architecture of the Hospital of St John', in Salter, Cartulary, Appendix III, pp. 393-434. Günther's essay reproduces some of the scale drawings from J. C. Buckler's ms 'Rough notes concerning the history of the Hospital of St John the Baptist…'(British Library Add. MS 27963).

10.3.2 COLLEGE BUILDINGS ERECTED BEFORE 1700

Drawings of the College as it appeared before the mid-eighteenth-century expansion can be found in the College collection of prints and drawings. See also Dav[id] Loggan, Oxonia Illustrata…(Oxford: n.pub., 1675). For a sketch of the old Library shelving by Clarke, c. 1720s, see Colvin, Worcester College, no. 86. On the Great Tower, see Robin Darwall-Smith, 'The Building of the Great Tower', Magdalen College Record 2004, pp. 83-90.

Note: for Magdalen Hall, which occupied part of the College site as a separate institution until the 1820s, see also Section 15.1. The remaining section of the Grammar Hall, which was also on the Magdalen Hall site, was retained after the fire of 1820 and became part of the present College.

(a) Site Plans may largely be found in FA1.

(b) Grammar Hall, Magdalen Hall

The old School Hall, on the west side of St John's Quadrangle, was pulled down in 1828 except for its northern, turreted end, now known as the Grammar Hall. Magdalen Hall was largely destroyed by fire in 1820, and the College paid for its re-siting in Catte Street, on the old Hart

Hall site.

Papers may be found at FA10. Some material on the old Gravel Walk is at FA11.

(c) Chaplains Quadrangle: See FA9

(d) The former Baroque Gateway

This gateway was the main entrance to the College from c. 1635 until 1844, and stood at the end of Gravel Walk, leading into St John's Quadrangle. For many years this gateway was attributed to Nicholas Stone, but accounting papers and correspondence have since established that the Christmas brothers of London were responsible. The original plans have not survived.

See FA7.

10.3.3 ALTERATIONS TO THE COLLEGE CHAPEL

Papers on the Chapel may be found at FA5.

There is no illustration of the Chapel interior as it looked after the Laudian refurnishing of 1629-35, but some of the salient features can be seen in G. G. Cooper's drawing of 1811, which also shows Wyatt's wall niches and imitation stone vaulted roof, constructed 1785-91. On Fuller's mural behind the altar see M. J. H. Liversidge, 'Prelude to the Baroque: Isaac Fuller at Oxford', Oxoniensia 57 (1992), 311-29.

L. N. Cottingham refurnished the Chapel in Gothic Revival style in 1828-37; Cottingham's east and west designs were framed, and now hang in the College in Fellows' rooms. The archive has a copy [ref. GPD/42] of Janet Myles, 'L. N. Cottingham, 1787-1847, architect: his place in the Gothic Revival', (unpublished doctoral thesis, Leicester Polytechnic, 1989).

On the windows in the antechapel, see Alex Koller, 'Richard Greenbury's Windows for the Ante-Chapel of Magdalen College', Magdalen College Record 1997, pp.67-73, and John Guy, 'The Restoration of the West Window in Magdalen College Chapel', Magdalen College Record 1997, pp.73-5.

10.3.4 SCHEMES FOR ALTERATIONS TO CLOISTERS

Even after the idea of the Great Quadrangle (see Section 10.3.10) had been abandoned, several architects wanted to take down or lower the north side of Cloisters, so that those occupying rooms in New Buildings would have a better view of the Tower and Chapel, and the view from Cloisters would similarly be opened up. The College started to carry out this plan, but there was an outcry and the north side was swiftly rebuilt, but without the accretions of dormers.

Other plans submitted but not adopted were for extending or rebuilding on the east side of Cloisters.

Relevant papers may be found at FA3 and FA16. See also Robin Darwall-Smith, 'The Demolition of the North Side of the Cloisters, or: Martin Routh the Dangerous Innovator', Magdalen College Record 2005, pp. 96-108.

10.3.5 PLANS FOR NEW GATEWAYS

Papers on the gates may be found at FA7.

The principal gateway to the College, at the end of the Gravel Walk, was a Baroque gateway erected in the 1630s. A number of schemes for a new gateway were proposed by Wyatt and others, but none was adopted until A. W. N. Pugin submitted a design in 1844. This gateway would now have been the only Pugin building in Oxford, but it was taken down less than 50 years later to make way for St Swithun's Quadrangle and the present gateway, designed by Bodley and Garner, erected on the High Street.

10.3.6 PROPOSALS FOR A NEW GRAMMAR SCHOOL AND MASTER'S HOUSE

Relevant papers may be found at FA16 and FA17.

After the Magdalen Hall fire of 1820, schemes for improving the College buildings often included plans for expanding the College westwards, and for moving the College school and master's house to the area near Longwall. Some schemes proposed the demolition of the remaining section of the old Grammar Hall. The College finally decided to retain the Grammar hall, but the school was moved westwards into the site adjoining Longwall, where it remained until 1930.

A design by J. C. Buckler for a new Choristers' School was adopted by the College Meeting in February, 1844, but in May the College ordered that architects should be invited to send in plans for a school and master's house. A new design by J. M. Derick/Derrick was chosen in November 1844, when it was also ordered that 20 guineas should be given to each of the three runners-up: Thomas Allom, A. W. N. Pugin and G. G. Scott. The project was temporarily abandoned for some years while a law suit between the School and the College was settled, and in May 1849 the College reverted to Buckler's cheaper plan without a master's house. See further Robin Darwall-Smith, 'Thomas Allom and the Building of Magdalen College School', Magdalen College Record 2002, pp. 85-97, and Robin Darwall-Smith, 'Before the New Library: The Archivist's Story', Magdalen College Record 2013, pp. 75-86.

This new schoolroom, in Bath stone, was converted into to a New Library for the College in 1930; the plans were drawn up by Sir Giles Gilbert Scott, who also designed Longwall Quadrangle.

10.3.7 ALTERATIONS TO THE HALL

Material on the Hall may be found at FA4. It was rebuilt by James Wyatt in the 1790s, with a new plaster roof, which was in turn replaced in 1902/3 with a wooden one, closer in intent to the original, designed by G.F. Bodley.

10.3.8 HOLYWELL MILL

Holywell Mill was acquired in 1879 from Merton College. The original building was probably taken down while still in Merton's ownership.

Papers on the Mill, and on the rebuilding work there from the 1990s, there may be found at FA25.

10.3.9 ALTERATIONS TO THE KITCHEN AREA

Papers on this may be found at FA9 and FA24.

10.3.10 SCHEMES FOR THE OLD LIBRARY

Papers on this may be found at FA6. These plans are for alterations or extensions to the Old Library. For plans to rebuild the Library as part of the Great Quadrangle scheme see Section 10.3.12.

Note: for the New Library see Section 10.3.6. (c).

10.3.11 LONGWALL QUADRANGLE, 1928-33

Longwall Quadrangle was built in 1928-30 after the Grammar School moved to Cowley place. It was designed by Sir Giles Gilbert Scott in Clipsham stone, with a Cotswold slate roof. For earlier schemes, and the Choristers' School, later the New Library, see Section 10.3.6.

Papers on this are at FA21.

10.3.12 NEW BUILDINGS AND THE GREAT QUADRANGLE SCHEME

Papers on this may be found at FA14 and FA16.

By the early eighteenth century the Cloisters and Lodgings were in a dilapidated state and unsuited to the needs of the wealthy Gentleman Commoners and Fellows of independent means who now made up most of the College members. A number of architects sent proposals for building a great new quadrangle, often with the addition of new library and lodgings as well as accommodation for members and a wide carriage entrance from Longwall. It was intended that parts of the old College would be destroyed.

The plans of Edward Holdsworth, a former Fellow, were the basis of the design drawn by William Townesend and accepted by the College in 1731. James Gibbs, Francis Smith, Lord Digby and probably Sir George Clarke had also been consulted. Townesend was in charge of the construction, which began in 1733. Only the north side of the quadrangle, now known as New Buildings was built, however, although the east and west ends of the south facade were left unfinished, awaiting the completion of the scheme. Schemes for completing the quadrangle and for modifying the Georgian facade of the existing building continued to be sent to the College until the early nineteenth century.

When Magdalen Hall burned down, in 1820, the College had the option of expanding westwards on the enlarged site and plans for completing the Great Quadrangle were abandoned. The facing of the rough unfinished ends of New Buildings, was at last accomplished in 1826. It used to be thought that this work used designs of Thomas Harrison based on a suggestion by John Buckler, but the contract for the work (FA14/4/5L/1) named Joseph Parkinson as the architect. Parts of the Headington stone building were refaced with Bath and Clipsham stone in 1925. On the plans for the redevelopment of Magdalen from the 1790s to the 1820s, see the very candid memoir of John Chessell Buckler at P371.

The architectural plans and drawings include ground plans, block plans, elevations and perspective views. See also Colvin, Worcester College catalogue, nos. 84-85 (Hawksmoor), 146-49 (Clarke).

The fullest study of the construction of the New Building is now Christine Ferdinand, An Accidental Masterpiece: Magdalen College's New Building and the People Who Built It (Oxford, 2010).

10.3.13 PRESIDENT'S LODGINGS

Papers on the Lodgings are at FA8, but some of the schemes in FA16 include ideas for remodelling the Lodgings too.

Plans for new Lodgings for the President were an integral part of some of the Great Quadrangle schemes (see Section 10.3.12), but these were never carried out. John Buckler and Joseph Parkinson made a number of suggestions which were abortive. Apart from Henry Keene's Georgian alterations, no major changes were effected until 1886-8, when the Lodgings building was virtually rebuilt in Taynton stone to the design of Bodley and Garner, retaining the old kitchen wing, main staircase and some other features.

10.3.14 ST SWITHUNS QUADRANGLE, 1879

Papers on this quadrangle are at FA20.

Bodley and Garner were chosen as the architects for this expansion in 1879, after a competition. The unsuccessful competitiors were Basil Champneys, G. E. Street and William Wilkinson. The Tower and buildings are in Milton and Taynton stone. Plans for the new gateway on the High street, also by Bodley and Garner, have not survived, and few for the new Lodgings: see Section 10.3.13.

10.3.15 WEST'S BUILDINGS

Designs for privies, with separate accommodation for Fellows, Demies and servants are at FA15.