Editing Merton College, Oxford (section)

==Buildings and grounds==
[[File:Merton-college-buildings-historical-map.png|thumb|upright=2.8|right|alt=A plan of the buildings, showing the approximate ages of construction|A plan of the buildings, showing the approximate ages of construction]]

The "House of Scholars of Merton" originally had properties in [[Surrey]] (in present-day [[Old Malden]]) as well as in Oxford, but it was not until the mid-1260s that Walter de Merton acquired the core of the present site in Oxford, along the south side of what was then St John's Street (now [[Merton Street]]). The college was consolidated on this site by 1274, when Walter made his final revisions to the college statutes.<ref>{{cite book |last1=George |first1=Brodrick |title=Memorials of Merton College |date=1885 |publisher=Clarendon |location=Oxford |page=6 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BShKAQAAMAAJ&dq=site+of+merton+college+1274&pg=PA391 |access-date=31 Jan 2022}}</ref>

The initial acquisition included the parish church of St John (which was superseded by the chapel) and three houses to the east of the church which now form the north range of Front Quad. Walter also obtained permission from the king to extend from these properties south to the old city wall to form an approximately square site. The college continued to acquire other properties as they became available on both sides of Merton Street. At one time, the college owned all the land from the site that is now [[Christ Church, Oxford|Christ Church]] to the south-eastern corner of the city. The land to the east eventually became the current Fellows' garden, while the western end was leased by Warden [[Richard Rawlins]] in 1515 for the foundation of [[Corpus Christi College, Oxford|Corpus Christi]] (at an annual rent of just over £4).<ref>See Bott, p.4</ref>

===Chapel===
{{Main|Merton College Chapel}}
[[File:Merton College Chapel, July 25, 2023.jpg|thumb|right|[[Merton College Chapel]] exterior]]
[[File:Merton College Chapel Interior 1, Oxford, UK - Diliff.jpg|thumb|right|[[Merton College Chapel]] interior]]

By the late 1280s, the old church of St John the Baptist had fallen into "a ruinous condition",<ref>[[Anthony Wood (antiquary)|Anthony Wood]], quoted in Bott, p.24</ref> and the college accounts show that work on a new church began in about 1290. The present [[choir (architecture)|choir]], with its enormous east window, was complete by 1294. The window is an important example (because it is so well dated) of how the strict geometrical conventions of the [[Early English Period]] of architecture were beginning to be relaxed at the end of the 13th century.<ref>Pevsner, p.25</ref> The south [[transept]] was built in the 14th century, the north transept in the early years of the 15th. The great tower was complete by 1450. The chapel replaced the parish church of St. John and continued to serve as the parish church as well as the chapel until 1891. It is for this reason that it is generally referred to as Merton Church in older documents, and that there is a north door into the street as well as doors into the college. This dual role also probably explains the enormous scale of the chapel, which in its original design was to have a [[nave]] and two [[aisle]]s extending to the west.<ref>See Bott, pp.24–37</ref>

A new choral foundation was established in 2007, providing for a choir of sixteen undergraduate and graduate choral scholars singing from October 2008. The choir was formerly directed by [[Peter Phillips (conductor)|Peter Phillips]], director of the [[Tallis Scholars]], and is now directed by Benjamin Nicholas, a former director of music at [[Tewkesbury Abbey]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.benjaminnicholas.co.uk/About.html |title=About Benjamin Nicholas|date=2014 |access-date=6 June 2014}}</ref> In 2013, the installation of a new organ, designed and built by [[Dobson Pipe Organ Builders]], was completed.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.dobsonorgan.com/html/instruments/op91_merton.html |title=Dobson Pipe Organ Builders - Instruments: Opus List (Merton College Chapel)|work=dobsonorgan.com |date=2013 |access-date=6 June 2014}}</ref> The chapel is known for its acoustics.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Harden |first1=Rachel |title=Interview: Peter Phillips, Director of The Tallis Scholars and Director of Music for the New Choral Foundation at Merton College, Oxford |url=https://www.churchtimes.co.uk/articles/2007/26-january/news/uk/interview-peter-phillips-director-of-the-tallis-scholars |website=Church Times |access-date=31 January 2022}}</ref>
 
A spire from the chapel has resided in Pavilion Garden VI of the [[University of Virginia]] since 1928, when "it was given to the University to honor [[Thomas Jefferson|Jefferson]]'s educational ideals."<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.virginia.edu/uvatours/gardens/gardensExplore.html |title=University of Virginia: Explore the Gardens, Pavilion Garden VI |work=virginia.edu |date=11 June 2009 |access-date=11 June 2009 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090516062737/http://www.virginia.edu/uvatours/gardens/gardensExplore.html |archive-date=16 May 2009 |df=dmy-all }}</ref>

===Front quad and the hall===
[[File:Merton college, front quadrangle 01.JPG|thumbnail|left|Front quad, view opposite the chapel]]

The hall is the oldest surviving college building, originally completed before 1277, but apart from the fine medieval ironwork on the door, almost no trace of the ancient structure has survived the successive reconstruction efforts; first by [[James Wyatt]] in the 1790s and then again by [[George Gilbert Scott|Gilbert Scott]] in 1874, whose work included the “handsome oak roof”.<ref>Bott, p.10</ref> The hall is still used daily for meals in term time. It is not usually open to visitors.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.merton.ox.ac.uk/visitor-information|title=Information for Visitors|work=merton.ox.ac.uk}}</ref>

Front quad itself is probably the earliest collegiate [[quadrangle (architecture)|quadrangle]], but its informal, almost haphazard, pattern cannot be said to have influenced designers elsewhere. A reminder of its original domestic nature can be seen in the north east corner where one of the flagstones is marked "Well". The quad is formed of what would have been the back gardens of the three original houses that Walter acquired in the 1260s.<ref>Bott, p.4</ref>

[[File:Mob Quad from Chapel Tower.jpg|thumb|right|Mob Quad in 2003, from Merton College Chapel tower]]

===Mob Quad and library===
{{main|Mob Quad|Merton College Library}}

Visitors to Merton are often told that Mob Quad is the oldest quadrangle of any Oxford or Cambridge college and set the pattern for future collegiate architecture. It was built in three phases: 1288–1291, 1304–1311, and finally completed with the Library in 1373–1378.<ref>Bott, p.16</ref>   But Merton's own Front Quad was probably enclosed earlier, albeit with a less unified design.<ref>Also Bott, p.10 slightly contradicting himself.</ref>  Other colleges can point to similarly old and unaltered quadrangles, for example Old Court at [[Corpus Christi College, Cambridge]], built ''c''.1353–1377.<ref>{{cite web| url = https://www.corpus.cam.ac.uk/sites/default/files/downloads/the_courts_of_corpus_christi.pdf| title = The Courts of Corpus Christi}}</ref>

===Fellows' Quad===
[[File:Merton College, Oxford (3915233867).jpg|thumb|left|The Sundial Lawn]]

The grandest quadrangle in Merton is the Fellows' Quadrangle, immediately south of the hall. The quad was the culmination of the work undertaken by [[Henry Savile (Bible translator)|Henry Savile]] at the beginning of the 17th century. The foundation stone was laid shortly after breakfast on 13 September 1608 (as recorded in the college Register), and work was complete by September 1610 (although the battlements were added later).<ref>Bott, p.37</ref> The southern gateway is surmounted by a tower of the four [[Classical order|Orders]], probably inspired by Italian examples that Warden Savile would have seen on his European travels. The main contractors were from [[Yorkshire]] (as was Savile); John Ackroyd and John Bentley of Halifax supervised the stonework, and Thomas Holt the timber. This group were also later employed to work on the [[Bodleian Library]] and [[Wadham College]].<ref>Martin & Highfield, p.163</ref>

===Other buildings===
[[File:Merton College, Oxford (3916000364).jpg|thumb|right|St Alban's quad]]

Most of the other buildings are [[Victorian era|Victorian]] or later and include: St. Alban's Quad (or "Stubbins"), designed by [[Basil Champneys]],<ref name="HUO">[[Brock, M.G.]] and Curthoys, M.C., ''The History of the University of Oxford, Volume VII, Part 2'' — Oxford University Press (2000) p.755. {{ISBN|0-19-951017-2}}.</ref> built on the site of the medieval [[St Alban Hall]] (elements of the older façade are incorporated into the part that faces onto Merton Street); the Grove building, built in 1864 by [[William Butterfield]] but "chastened" in the 1930s by [[Thomas Harold Hughes|T.H. Hughes]];<ref>Pevsner, ''op. cit.'', p. 164</ref><ref>{{cite book |editor-last1=Aston |editor-first1=Trevor Henry |editor-last2=Harrison |editor-first2=Brian |title=The History of the University of Oxford: Volume VIII: The Twentieth Century |isbn=0198229747 |date=7 April 1994 |publisher=Clarendon Press |page=502}}</ref> the buildings beyond the Fellows' Garden called "Rose Lane"; several buildings north of Merton Street, including [[Merton Street tennis court|a real tennis court]], and the Old Warden's Lodgings (designed by Champneys in 1903);<ref name="HUO" /> and a new quadrangle in [[Holywell Street, Oxford|Holywell Street]], some distance away from the college.

===TS Eliot Lecture Theatre===
TS Eliot Lecture Theatre is a new lecture theatre named after [[T. S. Eliot]], a former member of the college, opened in 2010. It has a bust of the writer by [[Jacob Epstein]], presented by [[Frank Brenchley]], a former member and Fellow of the college. Brenchley presented his collection of Eliot first editions and ephemera to the college, which is believed to be the second largest collection of such material worldwide. The foyer is illuminated by a lighting display representing three constellations that were visible on the night of 14 September 1264, the day the college was founded.<ref>{{cite web|title=College shows off its £5m auditorium|url=http://www.oxfordmail.co.uk/news/8210861.College_shows_off_its___5m_auditorium/|work=Oxford Mail|date=9 June 2010 |publisher=Newsquest (Oxfordshire & Wiltshire) Ltd|access-date=25 October 2012}}</ref>

===Gardens===
The garden fills the southeastern corner of the old walled city of Oxford. The walls may be seen from [[Christ Church Meadow, Oxford|Christ Church Meadows]] and [[Merton Field]] (now used by [[Magdalen College School, Oxford]] as a playing field for cricket, rugby, and football). The gardens are notable for a [[mulberry tree]] planted in the early 17th century, an armillary [[sundial]], an extensive lawn, a [[Herma]] statue, and the old Fellows' Summer House (now used as a music room and rehearsal space).{{citation needed|date=March 2021}}

===Gallery===
<gallery mode="packed">
File:Merton College Chapel from just north of the Meadow.jpg|[[Merton College Chapel]] from just north of the [[Christ Church, Oxford|Christ Church]] Meadow
File:Merton College Tower, Oxford, July 25, 2023.jpg|Tower and Fellows' Quad
File:Merton College across Christ Church Meadow (5653204186).jpg|Merton as seen from [[Broad Walk]]
File:Merton Front Quad.jpg|The front quad and the main entrance to the college
File:Merton college, fellows' quadrangle 02.JPG|Fellows' quad
File:Merton college, mob quad 01.JPG|[[Mob quad]]
File:Merton College and chapel from St Marys.JPG|Merton viewed from the north from [[University Church of St Mary the Virgin|St Mary's Church]]
File:Merton College as viewed from due south over the Meadows.jpg|Merton viewed from across the [[Christ Church Meadow, Oxford|Christ Church Meadow]] to the south
File:Merton college 01.JPG|View of the chapel tower
File:Merton College library hall.jpg|The south wing of the Upper Library
File:Old book bindings.jpg|Old book bindings at the [[Merton College Library]]
File:Oxford - Merton College - 0802.jpg|Bookshelves in the Library
File:Oxford - Merton College - 0828.jpg|Globe dating from the 16th century
File:Oxford - Merton College - 0846.jpg|Library
File:Merton College Sundial, Oxford, July 24, 2023.jpg|Sundial
File:MertonCollege1.png|Merton in 1865
File:MertonCollegeLibrary.png|Merton College Library
</gallery>