Merton Field

Broad Walk is a wide walkway running east–west on the north side of Christ Church Meadow and south of Merton Field in central Oxford, England.The walkway runs between St Aldate's though the Christ Church War Memorial Garden at the western end and the River Cherwell to the east at the southern end of the University of Oxford Botanic Garden. To the north at the western end is Christ Church, one of the Oxford colleges. The tower of Merton College Chapel dominates the view north from Broad Walk across Merton Field, beyond Dead Man's Walk and the old city wall which run parallel to Broad Walk, connected via Merton Walk. Broad Walk used to be lined with large elm trees, but has been denuded due to Dutch elm disease.The Meadow Building of Christ Church, in an imposing stone-faced Venetian Gothic style, is immediately to the north of Broad Walk. Opposite to the south, the tree-lined Poplar Walk, laid out in 1872 by Henry Liddell, Dean of Christ Church, leads down to the River Thames. Views of some of the spires and towers of Oxford include (west to east) Tom Tower, the spire of Christ Church Cathedral, Merton College Chapel Tower, and Magdalen Tower. The first hot air balloon ascent in Britain was made by James Sadler (1753–1828) from Merton Field on 4 October 1783, to the north of Broad Walk.Postwar development planned for central Oxford included a relief road passing through the Christ Church Meadow along the route of Broad Walk and joining the district of St Ebbe's. The proposal was defeated after strong opposition.

Christ Church Meadow is a flood-meadow and popular walking and picnic spot in Oxford, England.Roughly triangular in shape, it is bounded by the River Thames (the stretch through Oxford being known as "The Isis"), the River Cherwell, and Christ Church. The meadow provides access to many of the college boathouses, which are on an island at the confluence of the two rivers. The lower sections of the meadow, close to the Thames, are grazed by cattle (including Longhorn cows) while the upper sections have sports fields. Broad Walk is at the northern edge with Merton Field to the north and Merton College, dominated by the tower of Merton College Chapel, beyond that. Christ Church Meadow is owned by Christ Church, and is thus the private property of the college; however, access is allowed during the day. Access starts very early to allow rowers to go to the boathouses. Eights Week and Torpids, Oxford University's two main rowing events, and Christ Church Regatta are held on the Thames here. In past times, ornamental wooden barges were moored on the river here to store boats and house spectators. However, these have all now been replaced by boathouses. The meadow can be accessed from St Aldate's to the northwest via Broad Walk through the Christ Church War Memorial Garden, from the north in Merton Street via Grove Walk and Merton Walk, and from the eastern end of the High Street via Rose Lane near the Oxford Botanic Garden to the northeast. There is also less-used access from near the Head of the River public house by Folly Bridge on the River Thames to the southwest, connecting to Poplar Walk (created by Henry Liddell in 1872) and the path by the river. All entrances are via railinged gates that are locked at night. James Sadler made the first ascent in a balloon by an Englishman from the Meadow on 4 October 1784. The balloon rose to a height of around 3,600 feet and landed six miles away near the village of Wood Eaton near Islip to the northeast of Oxford. A plaque notes the event. The Meadow was also the location where the medieval royal pretender John Deydras claimed to have been persuaded by the devil to impersonate Edward II in 1318.Postwar development planned for central Oxford included a relief road passing through the meadow and joining the district of St Ebbe's. The proposal was finally defeated in 1971 after vigorous opposition.

Merton College Library (in Merton College, Oxford) is one of the earliest libraries in England and the oldest academic library in the world still in continuous daily use. The library is located in several parts of the college, and houses a priceless collection of early printed books and more than 300 medieval manuscripts. The historic collection was initially built through benefactions, including manuscripts donated by the medieval clergyman William Reade. The library also contains early printed books from the personal libraries of Griffin Higgs and Henry Kent, who originally donated approximately 600 and 800 volumes respectively. The main collection runs to approximately 70,000 volumes. The oldest part, known as the Upper Library, is on the first floor of two orthogonal ranges of buildings that were built around 1373 by William Humberville as part of the completion of Mob Quad, one of the first collegiate quadrangles. The Upper Library was improved in the 16th century under Warden Sir Henry Savile. Large dormer windows were added to the roof to allow more light in, and Thomas Bodley reorganized it in the new Continental style; the old book chests and lecterns were replaced by bookshelves — among the first to be used in England — with benches between them. The Upper Library still retains these 16th-century fittings. It also contains a number of book chests, some chained books, one of Elizabeth I's Welsh Bibles, a matching pair of 16th-century globes (one of the earth, the other of the heavens), and a collection of astrolabes and other early scientific instruments. Although the main academic library is housed elsewhere, the Upper Library is still regularly used by members of the college and is open to visitors by arrangement. The library also has important collections of papers and manuscripts from three former Mertonians: mountaineer Andrew "Sandy" Irvine and authors T. S. Eliot and Max Beerbohm. The Library is mentioned in the 1925 novel The Great Gatsby written by American author F. Scott Fitzgerald, where the young and mysterious millionaire Jay Gatsby claims to be an "Oxford man".

Grove Walk (aka Merton Grove and Grove Passage) is a short historic leafy walkway running north–south in central Oxford, England, situated on land between Merton College to the east and Corpus Christi College to the west. It provides one of the entrances to Christ Church Meadow from the north. To the north, Grove Walk connects with Merton Street through a gateway surrounded by railings. On the other side of Merton Street, the route continues as the narrow medieval Magpie Lane. To the south it passes through what used to be the city wall and leads to Dead Man's Walk on Merton Field. Beyond that via Merton Walk to the wide Broad Walk is the main part of Christ Church Meadow. In 1701, Corpus Christi College attempted to acquire some of this strip of land, but this was resisted.To the south, the first hot air balloon ascent in Britain was made by James Sadler (1753–1828), when he ascended from Merton Field on 4 October 1783, landing northeast of Oxford in Woodeaton.An 1864 block separates Grove Walk from the Back Quad at Merton College.By the late 19th century, Magpie Lane to the north was known as "Grove Street", but in 1927 the name was changed back to Magpie Lane.The building in the south-western corner of Merton College is also called Grove. The name perhaps derives because this area used to be an orchard.

Mob Quad is a four-sided group of buildings from the 13th and 14th centuries in Merton College, Oxford, surrounding a small lawn. It is often claimed to be the oldest quadrangle in Oxford and elsewhere, although Merton's own Front Quad was actually enclosed earlier (albeit with a less unified design) and Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, says that its own Old Court is the oldest structure of its type in either Oxford or Cambridge. The quadrangle pattern has since been copied at many other colleges and universities worldwide. It was built in three distinct phases. The oldest part is the college's Treasury or Muniment Room that stands above and behind the arch in the north east corner. The roof of this part is strikingly steep and is made of stone in order to protect it (and its contents) from fire. The steep pitch of the roof is necessary to support the weight of the stone. The present roof was restored with new Purbeck stone in 1966. The upper floor has always been used to store the college muniments, while the ground floor was probably the original bursary. It is not known exactly when the building was completed, but there are references to it in the college accounts for 1288 and 1291. The Muniment Room being built above a vaulted arch is suggested as evidence that the range of buildings to the south was either planned at the time of the original design or was replacing an existing building. This range to the south of the Muniment Room (the East side) was complete by about 1310–1320. The matching North side is probably slightly earlier and apparently stands on the site of the former church of St John, which was no longer needed once the new chapel was complete. The college accounts indicate that the old church was being used as rooms by 1308, and it is possible that parts of its structure were incorporated into the new building.These buildings were designed, and are still used, as accommodation for members of the college. They consist of three storeys of rooms, the third being built in the steeply-pitched attics. The rooms are arranged in sets on either side of central wooden staircases. The walls are thick and faced in rag-finished Cotswold stone. There are no chimneys and although all the rooms had fireplaces and chimneys by about 1600, they have been removed in modern times as the coal fireplaces have been replaced with electric heating. The south and west ranges which complete the quadrangle were built in 1373–1378. They were built to provide more accommodation (on the ground floor) and to house the expanding college library (on the upper floor). The old part of the library is still there, and, still expanding, it also now occupies most of the ground floor as well (and other parts of the college). The large dormer windows were added as part of Warden Savile's rebuilding work which began in 1589. The origin of the name "Mob Quad" is obscure. On older plans and accounts the quad is called variously Little Quadrangle, Old Quadrangle, Bachelors' Quadrangle (that is, B.A. Fellows), Postmasters' Quadrangle, and Undergraduates' Quadrangle (at least after the construction of Fellows' Quadrangle). The word "mob", derived from the Latin mobile vulgus (the fickle crowd) does not appear in English until the late 17th century, and was not commonly used for Mob Quad until the end of the 18th century. It was possibly originally a humorous description of the occupants. The lawn is a 20th-century addition.

The Meadow Building (known as "Meadows" to students, aka Meadow Buildings) is part of Christ Church, Oxford, England, one of the Oxford colleges, looking out south onto Christ Church Meadow on Broad Walk and then along the straight tree-lined Poplar Walk to the River Thames. The building is used as the public entrance for paying visitors to Christ Church instead of the main entrance under Tom Tower in St Aldate's.

Merton College (in full: The House or College of Scholars of Merton in the University of Oxford) is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. Its foundation can be traced back to the 1260s when Walter de Merton, chancellor to Henry III and later to Edward I, first drew up statutes for an independent academic community and established endowments to support it. An important feature of de Merton's foundation was that this "college" was to be self-governing and the endowments were directly vested in the Warden and Fellows.By 1274, when Walter retired from royal service and made his final revisions to the college statutes, the community was consolidated at its present site in the south east corner of the city of Oxford, and a rapid programme of building commenced. The hall and the chapel and the rest of the front quad were complete before the end of the 13th century. Mob Quad, one of Merton's quadrangles, was constructed between 1288 and 1378, and is claimed to be the oldest quadrangle in Oxford, while Merton College Library, located in Mob Quad and dating from 1373, is the oldest continuously functioning library for university academics and students in the world.Like many of Oxford's colleges, Merton admitted its first mixed-sex cohort in 1979, after over seven centuries as an institution for men only. Merton's second female warden, Irene Tracey, was appointed as Vice-Chancellor of the University of Oxford in 2022, and Professor Jennifer Payne was subsequently elected as acting warden.Alumni and academics past and present include five Nobel laureates, the writer J.R.R. Tolkien, who was Merton Professor of English Language and Literature from 1945 to 1959, and Liz Truss, who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom in September and October 2022. Merton is one of the wealthiest colleges in Oxford and held funds totalling £298 million as of July 2020. Merton has a strong reputation for academic success, having regularly ranked first in the Norrington Table.

Poplar Walk is wide footpath running north–south in Christ Church Meadow, Oxford, England.The footpath runs between The Meadow Building of Christ Church at the junction with Broad Walk to the north and the River Thames near Folly Bridge to the south. At this point, the river is known as "The Isis" and is the location of the end of rowing races for Oxford University events such as Eights Week in the summer and Torpids in the spring. There used to be ornate wooden barges on the river here to house rowing facilities and for viewing races. Now the barges are gone and there are boathouses instead a little further down the river near the junction with the River Cherwell. Poplar Walk is still used as a route to and from the boathouses. There are good rural views to the east across Christ Church Meadow, even though Poplar Walk is quite centrally located in Oxford. Poplar Walk was laid out in 1872 and lined with poplar trees by Henry Liddell, Dean of Christ Church and the father of Alice Liddell of Alice in Wonderland fame.Postwar development planned for central Oxford included a relief road passing through the northern part of Christ Church Meadow and joining the district of St Ebbe's. It would have cut off the northern end of Poplar Walk. The proposal was defeated after strong opposition.

The Florey Building is a modernist student accommodation building by James Stirling in Oxford, United Kingdom. It is the third and last building of “The Red Trilogy” (together with the Leicester Engineering Faculty building and the Cambridge History Faculty building), all of which are now listed.

Dead Man's Walk (or Deadman's Walk) is a footpath running east–west in central Oxford, England, situated immediately to the south of Merton College and just outside the old city wall, with Corpus Christi College at the western end. To the north, Grove Walk connects with Merton Street through a gateway. Immediately to the south is Merton Field with Merton Walk connecting to the wide tree-lined Broad Walk, which runs parallel with Dead Man's Walk. Beyond that is Christ Church Meadow.

Corpus Christi College (formally, Corpus Christi College in the University of Oxford; informally abbreviated as Corpus or CCC) is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1517, it is the 12th oldest college in Oxford. The college, situated on Merton Street between Merton College and Christ Church, is one of the smallest in Oxford by student population, having around 250 undergraduates and 90 graduates. It is academic by Oxford standards, averaging in the top half of the university's informal ranking system, the Norrington Table, in recent years, and coming second in 2009–10.The college's role in the translation of the King James Bible is historically significant. The college is also noted for the pillar sundial in the main quadrangle, known as the Pelican Sundial, which was erected in 1581. Corpus achieved notability in more recent years by winning University Challenge on 9 May 2005 and once again on 23 February 2009, although the latter win was later disqualified.The Visitor of the college is ex officio the Bishop of Winchester, currently Tim Dakin.

Christ Church Cathedral is the cathedral of the Anglican diocese of Oxford, which consists of the counties of Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire and Berkshire. It is also the chapel of Christ Church, a college of the University of Oxford. This dual role as cathedral and college chapel is unique in the Church of England. This gives the Dean of Christ Church a distinctive role as both head of Christ Church, Oxford as well as having the ecclesiastical function of an Anglican Dean.