The Tower of the Winds is the prominent octagonal tower on top of the old Radcliffe Observatory building in Oxford, England. [1] The building now forms a centrepiece for Green Templeton College, one of the colleges of Oxford University.
The tower is based on the ancient and smaller Tower of the Winds in Athens, Greece, built c.100–50 BC by Andronicus of Cyrrhus for the purpose of measuring time. [1] It is of octagonal stone construction, with eight relief images of Greek mythological wind gods at the top of each side of the tower, carved by John Bacon the Elder in 1792–4, copying those in Athens. The tower was completed by James Wyatt in 1794. On the top are Atlas and Hercules supporting a globe in white, also by John Bacon. The reliefs of the signs of the zodiac above the windows on the first floor are made of Coade stone by J. C. F. Rossi. Inside the tower, there are three main rooms on top of each other.
The Tower of the Winds is situated in prominent view just to the north of the Radcliffe Observatory Quarter (ROQ), an area for Oxford University departments including the Blavatnik School of Government, and south of Observatory Street, named after its former use as an observatory. To the south is the Mathematical Institute building and Somerville College, juxtaposing the new 21st-century architecture of the buildings with the old 17th-century style of the observatory. [2] To the west is the Jericho Health Centre and beyond that Walton Street, with a view of the tower in the distance from the southern end looking north along the street. To the east are the Woodstock Road and the front entrance of Green Templeton College, with St Anne's College opposite.
In classical architecture, the frieze is the wide central section of an entablature and may be plain in the Ionic or Doric order, or decorated with bas-reliefs. Paterae are also usually used to decorate friezes. Even when neither columns nor pilasters are expressed, on an astylar wall it lies upon the architrave and is capped by the moldings of the cornice. A frieze can be found on many Greek and Roman buildings, the Parthenon Frieze being the most famous, and perhaps the most elaborate.
The Tower of the Winds, also known by other names, is an octagonal Pentelic marble tower in the Roman Agora in Athens, named after the eight large reliefs of wind gods around its top. Its date is uncertain, but was by about 50 BC at the latest, as it was mentioned by Varro in his De re Rustica of about 37 BC. It is "one of the very small number of buildings from classical antiquity that still stands virtually intact", as it has been continuously occupied for a series of different functions.
A gazebo is a pavilion structure, sometimes octagonal or turret-shaped, often built in a park, garden or spacious public area. Some are used on occasions as bandstands.
Radcliffe Observatory was the astronomical observatory of the University of Oxford from 1773 until 1934, when the Radcliffe Trustees sold it and built a new observatory in Pretoria, South Africa. It is a Grade I listed building. Today, the observatory forms a part of Green Templeton College of the University of Oxford.
The Radcliffe Quadrangle is the second quadrangle of University College, Oxford, England. The buildings have been Grade I listed since 1954.
North Oxford is a suburban part of the city of Oxford in England. It was owned for many centuries largely by St John's College, Oxford and many of the area's Victorian houses were initially sold on leasehold by the College.
Coade stone or Lithodipyra or Lithodipra is stoneware that was often described as an artificial stone in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. It was used for moulding neoclassical statues, architectural decorations and garden ornaments of the highest quality that remain virtually weatherproof today.
Magdalen Tower, completed in 1509, is a bell tower that forms part of Magdalen College, Oxford. It is a central focus for the celebrations in Oxford on May Morning.
Radcliffe Square is a square in central Oxford, England. It is surrounded by historic Oxford University and college buildings. The square is cobbled, laid to grass surrounded by railings in the centre, and is pedestrianised except for access.
Walton Street is on the eastern edge of the Jericho district of central Oxford, England.
Green Templeton College (GTC) is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. The college is located on the former Green College site on Woodstock Road next to the Radcliffe Observatory Quarter in North Oxford and is centred on the architecturally important Radcliffe Observatory, an 18th-century building, modelled on the ancient Tower of the Winds at Athens. It is the university's second newest graduate college, after Reuben College, having been founded by the historic merger of Green College and Templeton College in 2008.
Jericho Health Centre is a health centre on Walton Street in Oxford, England. It is named after the district of Jericho, just northwest of central Oxford. It is part of the United Kingdom's National Health Service (NHS).
Observatory Street is a street in Oxford, England. It links at the eastern end Woodstock Road in central North Oxford and at the western end Walton Street and the Jericho area of Oxford, England.
The Radcliffe Observatory Quarter (ROQ) is a major University of Oxford development project in Oxford, England, in the estate of the old Radcliffe Infirmary hospital. The site, covering 10 acres is in central north Oxford. It is bounded by Observatory Street and Green Templeton College to the north, the Woodstock Road to the east, Somerville College to the south, and Walton Street to the west. The project and the new university area is named after the grade I listed Radcliffe Observatory to the north east of the site, now the centrepiece of Green Templeton College, which is intended to form the visual centrepiece of the project.
The Blavatnik School of Government is a school of public policy founded in 2010 at the University of Oxford in England. The School was founded following a £75 million donation from a business magnate Len Blavatnik, supported by £26 million from the University of Oxford. It is part of Oxford's Social Sciences Division, which aims to train current and future leaders in the practice of government.
Freud is a café-bar in a Victorian former church building at 119 Walton Street in Jericho, Oxford, England.
The Daniel S. Schanck Observatory is an historical astronomical observatory on the Queens Campus of Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey, United States, and is tied for the seventh oldest observatory in the US alongside the Vassar College Observatory. It is located on George Street near the corner with Hamilton Street, opposite the parking lot adjacent to Kirkpatrick Chapel, and to the northeast of Old Queens and Geology Hall.
Tower of the Winds is an octagonal marble clocktower in the Roman Agora in Athens.
A tholos, , in Latin tholus, is a form of building that was widely used in the classical world. It is a round structure with a circular wall and a roof, usually built upon a couple of steps, and often with a ring of columns supporting a conical or domed roof.
51°45′35″N1°15′59″W / 51.75972°N 1.26639°W