Oxford: highlights
Here is our selection of things to see and do in Oxford:
Christ Church
St Aldate's
tel: 01865-276 150
Known as “The House”, Christ Church was founded in 1525 by Cardinal Wolsey (his pointed hat is The House’s insignia), on the site of an old priory said to have been established by the Saxon princess, St Frideswide. Tom Tower was built by former student Sir Christopher Wren in 1681. Tom Quad, the largest quadrangle in Oxford, has splendid grace and magnitude, and it was in the pool here, which is known as Mercury, that Anthony Blanche was dunked in Evelyn Waugh’s influential 1945 novel, Brideshead Revisited.
Christ Church chapel is also the Cathedral (closes at 4.30pm) of Oxford. The 144ft (43-metre) spire is one of the earliest in England, dating from the 13th century. As well as the reconstructed tomb of St Frideswide, the cathedral also contains some exquisite stained glass, including works by the Pre-Raphaelite artist Edward Burne-Jones.
Lining the south side of Tom Quad is the enormous Hall of Christ Church, with its magnificent hammerbeam ceiling and now famous for featuring in the Harry Potter movies. To the north is the neoclassical Peckwater Quad and the smaller Canterbury Quad, where the Picture Gallery has a fine collection of Renaissance paintings and drawings.
South of the college, extending down to the confluence of the Isis and Cherwell rivers, is the glorious Christ Church Meadow, which runs down to the river. It’s a pleasant walk along the leafy avenue here, at the bottom of which are the university and college boathouses. It’s here, in Torpids in March and Eights Week at the end of May that the college rowing races take place.
The Bodleian Library
Broad Street
tel: 01865-277 162
The Bodleian Library is one of the world’s largest libraries, founded in 1602 by Sir Thomas Bodley. Having agreed to receive a copy of every book registered with Stationers’ Hall in 1610 (it is one of three of this kind in England, along with Cambridge University Library and the British Library), the library now houses more than 7 million volumes, including 50,000 precious manuscripts, on almost 120 miles (193km) of shelving, much of it underground.
The Bodleian has never been a lending library; even Charles I was once refused the loan of a book. Although the library is not open to the public, tours can be booked at the old Divinity School (beyond the main entrance of the library, with a fine vaulted ceiling) and include a brief look into the main hall and Duke Humfrey’s library, which featured in the Harry Potter films and where undergraduates are not allowed to use pens, only pencils.
Sheldonian Theatre
Broad Street
tel: 01865 277 299
Commissioned by Gilbert Sheldon, Chancellor of the University, in 1662, the Sheldonian Theatre was Christopher Wren’s first architectural scheme, which he designed at the age of 30, while still a professor of astronomy. Modelled on the ancient open-air Theatre of Marcellus in Rome, but roofed over to take account of the English weather, the Sheldonian was built primarily as an assembly hall for more or less elaborate university ceremonies. Chief among these is the Encaenia – the bestowing of honorary degrees that takes place each June.
For most of the year, however, the Sheldonian is used for concerts. It is not the most comfortable of venues, with its hard seats, but is a fine interior nonetheless, spanned by a 70ft (21m) diameter flat ceiling, painted with a depiction of the Triumph of Religion, Arts and Science over Envy, Hate and Malice. The ceiling, with no intermediate supports, is held up by huge wooden trusses in the roof, details of which can be seen on the climb up to the cupola, which, though glassed in, provides fine views over central Oxford.
Ashmolean Museum
Beaumont Street
tel: 01865-278 002
The oldest public museum in Britain, the Ashmolean Museum occupies a neoclassical building and a spectacular new space designed by Rick Mather on Beaumont Street. It houses a superb collection of Italian Renaissance, Dutch still-life and modern French painting. It also has an impressive collection of 16th- and 17th-century tapestries, bronzes and silver; Greek, Roman and Egyptian sculpture; a Stradivarius, ceramics and jewellery.
Botanic Garden
Rose Lane
Tel: 01865 286690
Oxford's Botanic Garden was founded in 1621 by Henry Danvers, Earl of Danby, as a physic garden for the growing of herbs and plants for use in medicine and science, this is the oldest botanic garden in Britain. It was created on the site of the city’s medieval Jewish cemetery, and much of the original layout, based on a series of rectangular beds, each devoted to one of the principal plant families, has survived.
The triangular New Garden, enclosed in 1944, contains a lily pond, bog garden and two rockeries for lime-loving plants. Another part of the garden is planted with roses illustrating the development of hybrid varieties in the 19th and 20th centuries. From the central pond, the view through the arch to Magdalen tower on the other side is magnificent.
Visitors can also admire plants kept in the huge glasshouses built right next to the Cherwell. In winter, when the gardens can look a bit bleak, these glasshouses provide an instant change of climate as well as the sight of luxuriant palms and lotuses, ferns and alpines and a special collection of carnivorous plants. A stroll along the River Cherwell here is very pleasant and in summer it is crowded with punters.
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