Sights in Oxford
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Corpus Christi College
Reputedly the friendliest and most liberal of Oxford’s colleges, Corpus Christi is small but strikingly beautiful. The bizarre pelican sundial in the front quad calculates the time by the sun and the moon, although it is always five minutes fast.
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All Souls College
One of the wealthiest of Oxford’s colleges and one of several graduate colleges, though it doesn’t accept just any old Oxford graduate. Each year, the university’s top finalists sit a fellowship exam, with an average of only two making the grade annually. All Souls was founded in 1438 as a centre of prayer and learning, and today fellowship of the college is one of the highest academic honours in the country.
Much of the college facade dates from the 1440s and, unlike other older colleges, the front quad is largely unchanged in five centuries. It also contains a beautiful 17th-century sundial designed by Christopher Wren. Most obvious, though, are the twin…
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Christ Church College
The largest and grandest of all of Oxford's colleges, Christ Church is also its most popular. The magnificent buildings, illustrious history and latter-day fame as a location for the Harry Potter films have tourists coming in droves.
The college was founded in 1525 by Cardinal Thomas Wolsey, who suppressed 22 monasteries to acquire the funds for his lavish building project. Over the years numerous luminaries have been educated here, including Albert Einstein, philosopher John Locke, poet WH Auden, Charles Dodgson (Lewis Carroll) and 13 British prime ministers.
The main entrance is below the imposing Tom Tower, the upper part of which was designed by former student Sir…
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Pitt Rivers Museum
Oxford has some excellent (free) museums, among them the University Museum of Natural History, famous for its dinosaur and dodo skeletons, and the attached (and incomparable) Pitt Rivers Museum, an Aladdin’s cave spread over three floors and crammed with such things as voodoo dolls and shrunken heads from the Caribbean and Pacific. Visitors are given torches (flashlights) to ‘explore’ the lower Court Gallery and are allowed to open all the drawers. Great stuff.
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University Museum of Natural History
Oxford has some excellent (free) museums, among them the University Museum of Natural History, famous for its dinosaur and dodo skeletons, and the attached (and incomparable) Pitt Rivers Museum, an Aladdin’s cave spread over three floors and crammed with such things as voodoo dolls and shrunken heads from the Caribbean and Pacific. Visitors are given torches (flashlights) to ‘explore’ the lower Court Gallery and are allowed to open all the drawers. Great stuff.
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Sheldonian Theatre
The monumental Sheldonian Theatre, built in 1663, was the first major work of Christopher Wren, at that time a professor of astronomy. Inspired by the classical Theatre of Marcellus in Rome, it has a rectangular front end and a semicircular back, while the ceiling of the main hall is blanketed by a fine 17th-century painting of the triumph of truth over ignorance. What’s remarkable about the ceiling is its length, made possible by ingenious braces made of shorter timbers for want of trees adequate in length. The Sheldonian is now used for college ceremonies and public concerts, but you can climb to the cupola for good views of the surrounding buildings.
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Ashmolean Museum
Britain’s oldest public museum, and second in repute only to London’s British Museum, the museum was established in 1683 when Elias Ashmole presented the university with the collection of curiosities – which came be to known as Tradescant’s Ark – amassed by the well-travelled John Tradescant, gardener to Charles I.
Its collections, displayed in bright, spacious galleries within one of Britain’s best examples of neo-Grecian architecture, span the world and include everything from Egyptian mummies and sarcophagi, Islamic and Chinese art, Japan’s ‘floating world’ and examples of the earliest written languages to rare porcelain, tapestries and silverware, priceless…
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Magdalen College
Set amid 40 hectares of lawns, woodlands, river walks and deer park, Magdalen (mawd-len), founded in 1458, is one of the wealthiest and most beautiful of Oxford’s colleges.
An elegant Victorian gateway leads into a medieval chapel, with its glorious 15th-century tower, and on to the remarkable cloisters – with strange animals perching on the buttresses – some of the finest in Oxford. The fantastic gargoyles and grotesques along the frontage here are said to have inspired CS Lewis’ stone statues in The Chronicles of Narnia. Behind the cloisters, the lovely Addison’s Walk leads through the grounds and along the banks of the River Cherwell for just under a mile.…
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Oxford University
Thirty-nine colleges make up the university, their elegant honey-coloured buildings wrapping around winding cobbled streets and attracting hoards of tourists each year. Yet despite the rushing traffic and throngs of people, inside their jealously guarded quadrangles an aura of studious calm descends. The oldest colleges date back almost 750 years and little has changed inside the hallowed walls since then.
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Old Library
Just off the Mob Quad is a 13th-century chapel and the Old Library, the oldest medieval library in use. It is said that Professor JRR Tolkien spent many hours here while writing The Lord of the Rings. Other literary giants associated with the college include TS Eliot and Louis MacNeice.
If you're visiting in summer, look out for posters advertising candlelit concerts in the chapel.
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New College
From the Bodleian, stroll under the Bridge of Sighs, linking the two halves of Hertford College – sometimes erroneously referred to as a copy of the famous bridge in Venice – to New College. (The only thing this bridge has in common with its Venetian namesake is its name.) This 14th-century college was the first in Oxford for undergraduates and is a fine example of the glorious Perpendicular style. The chapel here is full of treasures, including superb stained glass, much of it original, and Sir Jacob Epstein’s disturbing statue of Lazarus.
During term time, visitors may attend the beautiful Evensong, a choral church service held nightly at 6pm. Access for visitors…
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Modern Art Oxford
Far removed from Oxford’s hallowed hallways of history, this is one of the most refreshing contemporary-art museums outside London, with a rota of changing heavyweight exhibitions, a wonderful gallery space and plenty of activities for children.
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Bodleian Library
Oxford’s Bodleian Library is one of the oldest public libraries in the world, the first of England’s three copyright libraries (the other two are the British Library and the Cambridge University library) and quite possibly the most impressive library you ever see. It currently holds over 11 million items, 117 miles of shelving and has seating space for up to 2500 readers, with a staggering 4000 books and articles arriving every week – all of which need to be catalogued and stored.
The Bodleian Library has its roots in a 15th century collection of books and its present state is largely due to the efforts of Sir Thomas Bodley, a 16th century Fellow of Merton College…
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Merton College
From High St, follow the wonderfully named Logic Lane to Merton College, one of Oxford’s original three colleges. Founded in 1264, Merton is the oldest college and was the first to adopt collegiate planning, bringing scholars and tutors together into a formal community and providing a planned residence for them. Its distinguishing architectural features include the large gargoyles whose expressions suggest that they’re about to throw up, and the charming 14th-century Mob Quad – the first of the college quads.
Just off the quad is a 13th-century chapel and the Old Library (admission on guided tour only), the oldest medieval library in use (look for the chained books).…
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Divinity School
On the west side of the Bodleian Library's Old Schools Quadrangle is the Divinity School , the university's first examination room. It is renowned as a masterpiece of 15th-century English Gothic architecture and has a superb fan-vaulted ceiling. A self-guided audio tour to these areas is available.
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Radcliffe Camera
Just south of the library is the Radcliffe Camera, the quintessential Oxford landmark and one of the city's most photographed buildings. The spectacular circular library was built between 1737 and 1749 in grand Palladian style, and has Britain's third-largest dome. The only way to see the library is to join an extended tour, which also explores the warren of underground tunnels and passages leading to the library's vast book stacks. Tours take place on some Saturdays at 10am and most Sundays at 11.15am and last about an hour and a half. Check the website for up-to-date details.
For excellent views of the Radcliffe Camera and surrounding buildings, climb the 14th-century…
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Balliol College
Founded in 1263 Balliol College is thought to be the oldest college in Oxford. The huge Gothic wooden doors between the inner and outer quadrangles bear scorch marks from when four Protestant clerics were burned at the stake here in the mid-16th century.
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Oxford Castle Unlocked
Oxford Castle Unlocked explores the 1000-year history of Oxford’s castle and prison. Your entertaining costumed guide begins the tour in the 11th-century Crypt of St George’s Chapel, possibly the first formal teaching venue in Oxford, and continues into the Victorian prison cells and the 18th-century Debtors’ Tower, where you learn about the inmates’ grisly lives, daring escapes and cruel punishments. The tour also takes you up the Saxon St George’s Tower, which has excellent views of the city, while outside the castle you can clamber up the original medieval motte.
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Museum of Oxford
Though it often gets overlooked in favour of Oxford’s other museums, this is an absorbing romp through the city’s history – from the Roman and Saxon eras to the Victorian era and 20-century industries, such as marmalade-making and car manufacture. The reconstructions of period interiors, such as a 19th-century Jericho kitchen, are particularly good.
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Museum of Oxford
A bit dated but still interesting , this is the place to brush up on the history of the city and university, from Oxford’s prehistoric mammoths to its history of car manufacturing.
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Tower of Five Orders
On the eastern side of the Bodleian Library's Old Schools Quadrangle is the Tower of Five Orders, an ornate building depicting the five classical orders of architecture.
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New Bodleian Library
Designed in 1938 by Sir Giles Gilbert Scott, the architect responsible for the Battersea Power Station and the iconic red telephone box (booth).
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Old Schools Quadrangle
The oldest part of the Bodleian Library surrounds the stunning Jacobean-Gothic Old Schools Quadrangle, which dates from the early 17th century.
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Museum of the History of Science
Science, art, celebrity and nostalgia come together at this fascinating museum where the exhibits include everything from a blackboard used by Einstein to the world’s finest collection of historic scientific instruments, all housed in a beautiful 17th-century building.
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