St John’s College
This is the main and oldest part of St John’s College, built in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. It was originally St Bernard’s College, and an original statue of St Bernard stands in a niche on the tower (left)
It is Grade I listed (List Entry No. 1046647), and this part of the college lies in St Mary Magdalen parish
St John’s is one of the few colleges to have a front courtyard on the street. Gardner’s Oxfordshire Directory of 1852 was not impressed by its wall:
Before [the St John’s College] front is a terrace shaded with a row of lofty elms, enclosed by a wall and outer gateway about the year 1576. The gateway has long since been taken down, and an opening made at each end to admit of a continuation of the public footpath, but the removal also of the low unslightly wall would add much to the effect of the buildings, as well as to the general apperance of the street.
Victoria County History: St John's College
The outer gateway can be seen on the left in an engraving of 1779 (below).
