Saint George's Tower

Saint George's Tower stands as the oldest surviving stone structure in Oxford, distinguishable by the sturdy, heavy masonry of its Anglo-Saxon base. Built in the eleventh century, it served as the gatehouse for the original Oxford Castle. During the English Civil War, Royalist soldiers used the high, narrow windows of the tower to watch for enemy movements across the surrounding marshlands. It held prisoners in the dark chambers below, long before the modern prison buildings replaced the wooden walls of the fortress.