The Plain, Oxford

The Plain. The road to the left is St Clement's, in the centre (obscured) is Cowley Road and to the right is Iffley Road.

The Plain is an important junction, now a roundabout constructed in 1950, just east of Magdalen Bridge in Oxford, England. To the east and southeast are St Clement's, Cowley Road and Iffley Road. Magdalen College School is to the south. Cowley Place, also to the south, leads to St Hilda's College, the most easterly college of the University of Oxford.

The Plain received its name after the parish church of St Clement's was demolished here in 1829 after a new church^[1] was built near the other end of St Clement's in 1827–28, at the southern end of Marston Road.^[2] This left an open space where the roundabout now is.

Victoria Fountain

The Plain includes a small but prominent building facing Magdalen Bridge, Victoria Fountain, protected by a roof on stone columns.^[3] On top of the sloping tiled roof is a small clock tower. The fountain was a gift to the city by G. Herbert Morrell, designed by E. P. Warren and officially opened on 25 May 1899 by Princess Louise.^[4]

Traffic problems

Early in 2006 the Plain was redeveloped to make the junction safer. The 2006 work introduced pinch points between the motor and cycle traffic, especially on the Iffley Road entry to the roundabout. The 2007 redevelopment work (finished in late September) was mostly resurfacing, but there was some movement of the traffic islands. In 2014, it was announced that £1m of funding would improve the roundabout and increase the safety for cyclists.^[5]

References

1. St Clement's Church, Oxford.
2. Old Oxford: East Oxford: The Plain.
3. The Plain, Oxford, United Kingdom Of Great Britain Stock Image.
4. Sherwood, Jennifer; Pevsner, Nikolaus (1974). The Buildings of England: Oxfordshire. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books. p. 331. ISBN 0-14-071045-0.
5. Cycling gets £94m push in England

Coordinates: 51°45′00″N 1°14′38″W / 51.750°N 1.244°W