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maymorning
There is long tradition of celebrating the First of May, called Beltane by pagan types. In Oxford, choirboys greet the rising sun by singing from Magdalen College tower, while the townsfolk gather below on Magdalen Bridge. For the last few years the bridge has been closed to the public (citing structural weakness in the bridge). This year we were allowed back on the bridge again.
Dawn on Cowley Road. The sun rises behind the mosque under construction behind the Manzil Gardens park.
Cowley Road, completely devoid of traffic
The roundabout before Magdalen Bridge is called the Plain. The exit for the bridge is closed. Two video cameras are mounted on a tall blue crane. Spectators arrive in small groups to join the crowd waiting to be permitted to walk on to the bridge itself. You can't quite read the clock at this resolution, but it shows ten minutes to six.
Security guards barred us from entering the bridge. We listened to the choir singing from behind the barrier. The tower is yellow with the first rays of the rising sun.
When the first round of singing stopped, the securty people let us on to the bridge. All along the sides temporary fencing is adorned with signs exhorting us not to leap off the bridge. The grey circle visible in the stonework shows where a hole was drilled to insert reinforcing steel poles.
Admiring the Angel and Greyhound meadow.
Jeremy Dennis.
The choir resumed singing, and the crowd falls silent to listen to them from on the bridge -- for the first time in four years.
Behind us the ambulence people (in yellow vests) and security (in orange) creep forward so they can listen to the choirboys too.
Shows over. The crowd starts to disperse.
A news cameraman who had hoped for footage of people jumping in the river gives up and struggles through the crowds.
Magdalen College tower is perfectly situated to catch the first rays of the sun as it rises over the Angel and Greyhound meadow. A select few watch the festivities from the top of the tower.
As the crowds scatter again, the orange jackets of the security people stand out against the old yellow stone of the college walls. The man in the yellow jacket and bowler hat is a Proctor, one of the University's internal police.
