Magdalen Street
Magdalen Street is a short shopping street in central Oxford, England, just north of the original north gate in the city walls.[1] Traditionally, the name of the street is pronounced /ˈmæɡdəlɪn/ and not as the name of the Magdalen College, which is always /ˈmɔːdlɪn/.[2]
At the southern end, Magdalen Street meets
St Giles' to the north, with Beaumont Street
to the west.
To the west are shops. The street used to be the location of Oxford's leading department store for many years, Macdonald Randolph Hotel
, widely considered to be Oxford's leading hotel.
To the east is a historic church,
Martyrs' Memorial, commemorating the Oxford Martyrs
.
Thornton's Bookshop opened in Magdalen Street in 1835 and was located here until 1840, and again from 1853 to 1863.
St Giles' Fair, held at the beginning of September each year and mainly in St Giles' to the north, extends into Magdalen Street. During the 1930s, the poet John Betjeman noted that:
It is about the biggest fair in England. The whole of St Giles' and even Magdalen Street by
Woodstock and Banbury roads, is thick with freak shows, roundabouts, cake-walks, the whip, and the witching waves.[4]
References
- ISBN 0-333-39917-X.
- ^ Jones, Daniel, eds. P.Roach, J.Setter and J.Esling Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th Edition, 2011, Cambridge University Press
- ^ History Archived 2010-03-11 at the Wayback Machine, St Mary Magdalen Church, Oxford.
- ^ Alison Petch, Calendar related artefacts: St Giles Fair, England: The Other Within, Pitt Rivers Museum, Oxford, UK.