Local sights

Most sights, museums and university/college buildings are free unless otherwise indicated, although donations are always welcome! The sights are listed in an approximate order in which they could be viewed if you were very keen to see them all!

• The house with the shark through the roof, in the suburb of Headington. May be spotted on the left from the London/Heathrow coach into Oxford. The cause of much controversy, it may have been removed by the time you get here, so come soon! The domicile of the owner of ...
• The Penultimate Picture Palace (Jeune Street). Cinema with a lot of the action on the outside, looking as though it is climbing up the walls. Now sadly closed, so I am afraid you have missed all the action anyway. In the style of the Not The Moulin Rouge cinema (which used to be opposite the shark), by the same artist. Unfortunately this too is closed having been destroyed to make way for some ghastly new office block. That's progress for you. :-(

• Gloucester Green: next to the bus station. Newly created square (``piazza'') surrounded by trendy shops and restaurants, and overlooked by overpriced flats looking for buyers that aren't there. The Old Fire Station there has also been done up and reopened as a restaurant, bar, etc. Wednesday is market day so it is a bit packed then.

• Little Clarendon Street (or `Little Trendy Street' as it is know locally). Lots of trendy shops and restaurants. Also the University Offices who launder our ECU's for us are located here.

• The Oxford University Museum of Natural History: across the road and south a bit from the Computing Lab on Parks Road. Famous for dinosaurs and the Dodo's head and foot that they rescued from the ashes in 1795 (turn left at the entrance). The museum is housed in a beautiful Victorian Gothic building. Unfortunately part of the glass roof was damaged by the storms this year, so please give generously! Also note the carving round the windows at the front. Some of this is very ornate (and therfore expensive!), but it is only half finished because the University was short of money even in Victorian times. Also visit ...
• The Pitt Rivers Museum: at the back of the University Museum - don't miss it! Famous for mummies and shrunken heads, this is a museum of a museum - a 19th century explorer's collect-o-rama containing everything from dugout canoes to the latest craze in wooden clothing. Find out how to tell the difference between a fake shrunken head and the real thing! At one time the demand for shrunken heads by explorers (early tourists) was so high that there was a market for such things.

• Balfour Building: up the Banbury Road set back from the road on the right hand side. Fairly recently opened overflow collection of musical instruments originally in the Pitt Rivers Museum. You can wear radio headphones which play the music of the instruments you are viewing. Look out for the whistling kettle and squeaky frog, although I have yet to hear these on the headphones!

• All the colleges you could ever wish to see, and more besides. Christ Church is the biggest, but they try and charge you if you look like a tourist. (In fact it is so big that the College chapel is Oxford Cathedral!) Most (all?) colleges prefer visitors in the afternoons and will have large signs indicating this at the main gate, especially in the tourist season (follow the advice in section 1). A genuine `bulldog' (wearing a bowler hat) may often be found at the main entrance of Christ Church in St. Aldates warding off the tourists and making them go round to the side entrance to pay. Avoid wearing Bermuda shorts and a large camera if you wish to walk past him without paying!

• Keble College: Victorian brick college opposite the Computing Laboratory. Go into the (very large and ornate) chapel. Holman Hunt's (Pre-Raphaelite) `The Light of the World' may be found in a side-chapel on the right. Press the button to switch on the light! The other version of this picture may be seen in St. Paul's Cathedral, London, if you can't get to Oxford.

• The Bodleian Library (the "Bod" for short). Bits may be found all over town, connected by underground tunnels. It is so extensive that there used to be an underground railway to transport the books. Guided tours start next to the Sheldonian and finish in the pub opposite. For a particular thrill, try and join. There are also tours of Duke Humfrey's Library (1488). Start by entering the door marked `SCOLA NATURALIS PHILOSPHIAE' Here you can view a small exhibition of (normally old) books and attempt to obtain a ticket (for a fee).

• Divinity School: attached to Bodleian Library. A display of old books used to be on view inside; however due to lack of money for new cases this is no longer so. They is a reasonably good tourist shop for Oxford souvenirs immediately outside. Sometimes called `the most beautiful room in Europe' in Oxford. See also Radcliffe Square (`most beautiful square in Europe') and High Street (`most beautiful street in Europe'). Decide for yourself!

• The Sheldonian Theatre: on the south side of Broad Street, guarded by a row of stone Roman Emperors, this is the University's site for ceremonies of all kinds. Climb the cupola for a good view over Oxford. There is a small entrance charge unless you are with a member of Oxford University (or look like one!). The "theatre" is named after Gilbert Sheldon, Warden of All Souls College and later Bishop of London. At the time it was built (1664-69) people thought that Christopher Wren, the architect, would never be able to support the roof without any extra supporting columns inside the building. Luckily they were proved wrong. This was one of his first buildings and helped make him famous. There are good concerts many Saturday evenings if you are short of something to do. There is currently a rumpus over the possible replacement of the organ by an electronic one!

• Edmund Halley's house: just past Hertford College's `Bridge of Sighs' (opposite the Sheldonian), down New College Lane on the left. You can spot the extension in the roof where I presume he had his observatory and spotted his comet!

  

• Blackwell's: The bookshop, on the north side of Broad Street opposite the Sheldonian. They also own most of the other bookshops in the same street as well! Go downstairs to the scientific section (including computing). This is contained in a huge underground room under the next door college (Trinity). This is worth visiting at least once during your time in Oxford. Blackwell's can be used as a reference library for recent books because the sales assistants will not bother you until you bother them; they know you will probably find one to buy anyway, even if you didn't mean to! Books can be shipped to anywhere in the world, and even within the EC.

• Broad Street: site of most of Oxford's bookshops and also where three martyrs (Latimer, Ridley and Cranmer, all educated at Cambridge!) were burnt at the stake several centuries ago (1555-6). Look for the metal cross in the middle of the road opposite the Children's Bookshop for the exact site. Also, see the more modern Martyrs' Memorial round the corner at the bottom end of St. Giles. It looks like a giant church spire sticking out of the ground.

• Ashmolean Museum in Beaumont Street: the oldest museum in Britain (founded 1683, although moved from the original site). Look out for King Alfred's jewel, Paulo Uccello's `A Hunt in the Forest' and Guy Fawkes' lantern. There is also good range of Pre-Raphaelite pictures. The Ashmolean is planning a new underground café.

• Museum of the History of Science: next to the Sheldonian in Broad Street. This is the original site of the Ashmolean Museum, and later the Oxford English Dictionary. There is a good collection of microscopes and other scientific instruments.

• The Oxford Story: tourist attraction in Broad Street. Travel round viewing historical Oxford scenes in the comfort of your own Walkman on a moving `medieval' scholar's desk. Various languages are available, but you get Magnus Magnusson (from Iceland! - it used to be Sir Alec Guinness) if you listen in English. Synthetic(?) smells of mediaeval Oxford are included at no extra charge. Make sure you pick up one of the numerous discount vouchers before paying the huge entrance fee. Part of the proceeds go to the University, who are co-owners, so it's all in a good cause. Roll up, roll up! The shop isn't bad, as tourist shops go.

• University College claims to be Oxford's oldest college, founded on 1249, reputedly by King Alfred who unfortunately lived several centuries earlier! Outside, see the plaque commeromating Robert Boyle and Robert Hooke who used to work next door - two of the few Oxford scientists of historical repute. (For some reason, most scientists went to Cambridge!) Inside the College, see Shelley's Memorial, round to the right from the porter's lodge. Shelley was expelled from the College for writing and publishing a pamphlet on the Necessity of Atheism, and then distributing it to all the heads of the Colleges. Of course the College instantly forgave him once he became famous writing poetry. Over the years, some of the the statue's anatomy has become small due to the removal of paint applied during student pranks! However his wife had to pay for the memorial. See also the mini-lift for the sadly disabled but nevertheless famous physist, Prof. Stephen Hawkin, FRS (ex Univ., but now at the other place) next to the entrance to the Dining Hall on the right of the opposite side of the main quad as you enter the College. To the left, the chapel has some nice stained glass windows if you can get in.

• Magdalen College: Deer Park, riverside walks. There is a charge (during the tourist season at least) if you look like a tourist. You could be in the middle of the countryside in places, but actually you are still in the middle of Oxford. Beautiful tower, restored to its former glory, from the top of which Magdalen College Choir sings a carol at 6 a.m. on 1st May each year (don't ask me why but they have been doing it for over 500 years now so why stop?); followed by Morris Dancers, buskers and general merriment, especially from students. Magdalen Bridge close by has been restored at huge expense but is already deteriorating again due to the traffic. The Oxford Preservation Trust, 10 Turn Again Lane, may still be accepting contributions or selling old pillars from the balustrade if you want a memento of your visit!

• The Botanic Gardens: opposite Magdalen College, High Street. Second oldest in Europe (after Padua in Italy, I believe). Good glass houses open in the afternoon. Don't steal the plants! There is a charge in summer months.

  

• Punting: from Magdalen Bridge at the end of the High Street. Also from Cherwell Boathouse in north Oxford for a different stretch of river, but that is quite a walk away from central Oxford. Large queues form on sunny days in the summer, especially in the afternoon and at weekends. If you have a contact with access to College punts, make use of this. For example, Wolfson College has its own punt pool.

• Christ Church Meadow: riverside walks, Boat houses, jogging if you must. Excellent for a leisurely stroll on a sunny afternoon, with good views of the Oxford spires in the distance.

• Alice's Shop: opposite Christ Church in St. Aldates. Reputedly frequented by the original Alice of `Alice in Wonderland' fame. Lots of Alice and other Oxford knick-knacks. Very useful for presents if (like me) you have a daughter called Alice. Lewis Carroll (or Charles Dodgson to use his real name) was a Mathematics Fellow at Christ Church. Alice was a daughter of the Dean.

• Blenheim Palace: a big house at Woodstock, several miles north of Oxford. Owned by the Duke of Marlborough and given to the original Duke for winning some battle or other. The trees are supposedly laid out in the formation of the battle, although you wouldn't know unless you had been told. Winston Churchill was born here by accident! Woodstock itself is a small town which is quite pretty but touristy. You need a car or to take the bus and have at least half a day and some pounds in your pocket to see this one.

• The Railway Station: We now have a brand new railway station, the third within my lifetime! The first was Victorian and was knocked down in the '60s; if it had survived it would now be lovingly restored. The second was `temporary', but lasted a good 25 years. The new one is shaped like a shed with lots of glass bits; not worth a special trip, but you can admire it if you happen to arrive or depart by train - it is better than many a railway station, so if you're travelling and have hit upon an enforced hiatus, you can sit it out there! Tourist information is available if you arrive during working hours.