Founded in 1448 as Magdalen Hall by William Wayflete Bishop of Winchester. 1458 as Magdalen College (pronounced Maudlin). Sister College – Magdalene College, Cambridge. Men and women – Undergraduates 411 Postgraduates 185. Magdalen is located on the eastern edge of Oxford city centre, along the bank of the River Cherwell, in a huge 100-acre woodland area. This includes a deer park where a herd of hundreds of free-roaming deer enhances the already impressive setting. Impressive five-hundred-year-old buildings radiate a powerful, ancient charm, despite a checkered history of renovations that has caused great friction among citizens in the past. Secret demolitions (in the long pauses between terms) and reconstructions together with a perpetual battle between supporters of the classical and Gothic styles caused much disharmony. However, the passage of time has softened modern opinion on what might have been discordant in the eyes of the ancients. To pass through the Magdalen Gate is to discover a magical alternative parallel world similar to Narnia. Five libraries open 24 hours a day The college educates 411 undergraduate and 185 graduate students in a balanced ratio of men to women. All university students can live on site for the duration of their study. The admissions policy is to attract promising and committed academic talent based solely on merit, without regard to social or ethnic background. Magdalen is, of course, heaven for these cultured types, offering five libraries open 24 hours a day. Collectively they contain over 100,000 volumes, both modern and ancient. No stone has been left unturned to enable students to achieve the high standards expected, both academic and extracurricular, in a relaxed environment where pressure is very low. in a poor and degraded example of the Gothic ideal proposed by James Wyatt. Today the building is held in much higher esteem, with less emphasis on formula and more credit given to individuality. This classic structure was positioned just north of the Cloisters Quad across an adjacent meadow and was designed to be the first of a new quad that never materialized, leaving it in splendid isolation. Reputation for Law and Literature The college has an enviable reputation in the field of law having educated both Lord Denning and Lord Brown Wilkinson along with two justices of the United States Supreme Court. It also has an artistic side, with influential literary figures such as Oscar Wild and Seamus Heaney. The most romantic of all, CS Lewis studied here and surely this beautiful community with its wonderful deer park inspired the Chronicles of Narnia.