Merton College is located on the S side of Merton Street (formerly St John Baptist's Street) just E of the Merton Street and Magpie lane intersection. Front Quad has been called irregular and haphazard, as it is not a perfect quadrangle; the length of the hall is not parallel with Merton Street. Like most of Oxford's colleges, it is built from local Oxfordshire stone.
Merton College boasts the earliest major buildings of any of the Oxford colleges. Mob Quad is Oxford's oldest and smallest medieval quad. The later 13th c. hall is located in the Front Quadrangle on the S side.
Only one early 15th c. record indicates that professional entertainers performed at Merton College.
The buildings continue in use as Merton College.
1264 Founded by Walter de Merton, the Bishop of Rochester, to maintain scholars from the secular clergy at Oxford.
1264--6 More land purchased along St John Baptist's Street to build Merton College. The hall is one of the earliest buildings, mentioned in a document from 1277.
1290-4 The Chapel, located on the W side of Front Quad, completed.
1299-1300 Warden's Lodging built in the NE angle of Front Quad.
1304--79 Mob Quadrangle completed.
1371--9 Library built by William Rede, Bishop of Chichester, finally enclosing Mob Quad.
15th-early 16th c. Additions to the Front Quad, including the front gate ca. 1418.
1450 Merton's Tower completed.
ca. 1500 Fitzjames gate built to the E of the Hall.
1512 Hall floors and some decorations updated.
1540 Wainscoting added to the Hall, decorated with the arms of King Henry VIII.
1579 Entrance porch added to the Hall.
1589--91 E range of Front Quad rebuilt.
1586--1622 Further building commissioned by the warden, Sir Henry Savile. Kitchen rebuilt adjacent to the Hall at the N end of the W range of Fellows Quadrangle. Fellow's Quad completed 1610 with battlements added in 1622.
1631 W range of Front Quad rebuilt.
by 1646 Hall was 'situ et ruinis squalida' and some repairs took place (Henderson, Merton College 243).
1790--4 Hall almost entirely remodelled and rebuilt by Wyatt. The old painted glass, the N and S portals and the iron door were retained (Henderson, Merton College 244).
1836--8 Merton Street front refaced in Decorated style by Blore.
1842 Restoration of the Chapel began.
1860 Plans to dismantle the whole of Mob Quad were discussed in light of the 1854 Repair Act. Ultimately the plan was abandoned and instead the Grove building was added.
1872--4 Hall restored by Sir Gilbert Scott, with the intent of recapturing the original design.
1904--5 E range of Front Quad rebuilt. Fitzjames gate restored.
1904--10 St Alban's Quadrangle rebuilt by Champneys.
1908 New warden's lodgings (no longer in use) built on N side of Merton Street.
REED Oxford 1.15
