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Oxford Walking Tours
A Personal Selection of Interesting Places in and around
Oxford
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Places with letters and numbers in brackets are
shown on the maps.
Most people who visit Oxford want to see some University
colleges, museums and buildings. Details of these can be found by following
links from the University
site, information on daily events
and Oxford City. Below is an
idiosyncratic list of some places which sometimes get left off other lists.
Miscellaneous 
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Sharks ! On
your way to Oxford by car or coach from London, Heathrow, Gatwick etc,
there is a house with a life size model of a shark
which appears to have crashed from the sky into the roof, in the suburb
of Headington. A careful observer may spot it on the left in a side street
(New High St.) two thirds of the way into Headington shopping area after
the main crossroad/redlight.It was the cause of much controversy when first
installed but has now been accepted by most people. |
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Alice's
Shop (19): opposite Christ Church in St. Aldates was frequented by
the original Alice of
`Alice in Wonderland'. Lewis
Carroll (or Charles Dodgson) was a Mathematics don at the College of Christ
Church Alice was a daughter of the Dean.
Shopping
Gloucester Green: (L) next to
the bus station. "Piazza'' surrounded by trendy shops and restaurants and
markets on Wednesdays (food and utilities) and Thursdays (antiques and
bric a brac)
Little Clarendon Street:
lots of trendy shops and restaurants.
The Covered Market (U) (1771)A
maze of alleys with shops selling food, clothes, flowers, books, gifts plus numerous
little cafes, snack bars at very good value . Just outside the covered market
through the Golden Cross is an old inn courtyard
going back to 1193 where you will find the Pizza Express chain restaurant and
coffe lounge in one of the most interesting 15th to 17th C domestic buildings
with original wall decorations upstairs. Drop in. There
are strong grounds for thinking Shakespeare did during the plague years of 1603
when his company was on the road.
Particularly
good for kids
The
Oxford University Museum of Natural History (E) on Parks Road famous
for dinosaurs and the Dodo's head and foot that they rescued from the ashes in
1795. The museum is housed in a beautiful Victorian Gothic building. In spring
a television camera points at a nest of swifts in the tower and can be seen on
a TV screen live.
The Pitt
Rivers Ethnological Museum (E) is at the back of the National History
Museum is a treasure trove of everyday items from all the civilisations
in the world even mummies and shrunken heads. It has exhibits in drawers,
museums as they used to be!
Music
Maker Gallery This is an annex of the above museum for musical instruments
at Balfour Building 1km up the Banbury Road (no.
60, north - A4165) set back from the road on the right hand side. You can wear
radio headphones which play the music of the instruments from all over the world
which you are viewing (by appointment only). Other museum details can be found
at this University site.
Entertainment: Ice
rink (P) (01865 248076); Laser
Quest (L) (01865 200233): 20 minute sessions hunting opponents with laser
guns in a labyrinth; Oxford Story
Exhibition (K) (01865 791716): sit at a mobile desk travelling round exhibits
showing Oxford's history ; Hands-On
(J) is a new science gallery with interactive experiments for 5 - 12 year olds
adjacent to St Clements Street, at the foot of Headington Hill on the corner
of Cave Street. Take the Park & Ride bus number 400 towards Thornhill from
the train station or local buses from the city centre. Adults £5.00,
concessions and children £3.50, family ticket £15.00 (4 people, including
at least one adult); 1-5 London Place, Oxford, OX4 1BD, Tel: 01865 728953
Concerts
The most famous concert venue is the Sheldonian
Theatre in Broad street ,built by Christopher Wren in 1669. Handel
and Haydn played in it and and still receive world famous orchestras and
conductors . Booking is recommended.
A not so well known but delightful Holywell
Music Room (D) is the oldest purpose built concert hall in Europe (it
is very small). Opened in 1748, it has played host to Handel, Mozart and Haydn.
Mostly classical concerts are held in the evenings and also on most Sunday mornings
at 11.15am.Price include free coffe at the nearby Kings Arm pub or at the Turf
tavern in Bath Place opposite . Booking is usually not essential if you arrive
half an hour early. For other concert facilities see the Oxford
City site.
Christ Church cathedral
offers evensong most evenings at 6pm by the world famous boys choir founded
at the same time than the college in 1546.
Museums
Ashmolean
Museum (F) in Beaumont Street: the oldest museum in Britain (founded
1683, although moved from the original site). Containing a wide variety of exhibits
King Alfred's jewel, Paulo Uccello's 'A Hunt in the Forest', and a good range
of Pre-Raphaelite pictures plus excellent selection of ancient greek, egyptian,
roman and prehistoric treasures. Also a lot of silver ware and some musical instruments.
Kids ask for the Tradescant room to see Guy Fawkes'
lantern, King Henry VIII's huge gloves and a ceremonial cloak given by Pocahantas's
father in 1608!
Museum
of the History of Science (B): 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 large collection of astrolabes, microscopes and other scientific
instruments.Also a blackboard with formulas written by Einstein. The house
of Edmund Halley (Halley's comet) is just past Hertford College's `Bridge of Sighs'
(opposite the Sheldonian), down New College Lane on the left.
Art
Museum
of Modern Art (G) on the corner of St Ebbes has 5 large exhibition
galleries and an excellent bookshop and cafe.
Museums with important works include
the Ashmolean which has a drawing
for a Crucifixion by Michaelangelo and works by Durer, Samuel Palmer, the pre-Raphaelites
as well as 300 accurate plaster casts of Roman and Greek statues and reliefs
from 6BC to 2AD; the Bodleian Library has an exhibition room in the School Quad
(free); colleges include Christ Church Picture
Gallery (drawings by Leonardo da Vinci, Bellini, Verrochio, paintings by
Carracci, Lippi); the antechapel of Magdalen College has a near-contemporary
copy of the Last Supper of Leonardo da Vinci first recorded in 1626; University
College has Shelley's memorial (see University College).
There are two important events in the art-calendar in Oxford:
Art in Action
(01844 338085) at Waterperry which takes place over 4 days at a country house
40km outside Oxford usually during the 3rd weekend in July and features artists
and artisans creating their works on site in a vast assembly of marquees; Arts
Week (01235 538828) during which artists and craftspeople open their
studios to the public from the middle of May to the beginning of June.
Modern
Oxford
Oxford colleges have continued the tradition of commissioning important
architects to create their extensions and new buildings. As a result Oxford has
many buildings of this century which are studied as models of design by students
of architecture.
Museum of Modern Art (G)
(see Art)
Colleges
There are 39 colleges so far. On the
High University College (8) founded
in 1249, claims to be the oldest. University likes to think that King Alfred
had something to do with its existence although he died in 899! See the
plaque commemorating two of the few well known Oxford scientists Robert
Boyle and Robert Hooke. Inside the College there is Shelley's
Memorial: he 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. The College forgave him once his poetry became famous.
Over the years, some of the the statue's anatomy has suffered due to the
removal of paint applied during student pranks. However his wife had to
pay for the memorial.
Each of the 39 colleges has its own history, traditions
and characters and the only way to really find out about them is on foot
with a qualified guide!
Outdoors
Canals:the
Coventry -Oxford Canal ends in Oxford and has good tow paths
to walk along from Hythe Bridge street
Riverside walks:Don't
look for the Thames in Oxford as it changes its name into the Isis while
in Oxford.
Botanic garden (Y): one
of the oldest in europe (1621). Opposite Magdalen College.It has beautiful
tropical greenhouses and is an ideal spot to have a rest in the summer
and watch the punts (see below)
glide on the river Cherwell.
Magdalen College Deer Park (Z):(pronounce
Maudlin College). Breathtaking views. There is a charge.in the summer .
Magdalen College Choir have been singing at dawn on 1st May each year for
over 500 years from the top of the college tower. If you can be in Oxford
on May Day go and hear them. The pubs open at 4 a.m., there are Morris
Dancers, buskers and lots of people.
Christ Church Meadow:
riverside walks, boat houses, good views of the Oxford spires in the distance.
Punting:a typical
Oxford pastime on the river in the summer which needs a little bit of practise
in using the pole to propel the barges. An expert can do it without getting
his shirt-cuffs wet. Don't forget the picnic. Punts can be hired from Magdalen
Bridge at the east end of the High Street, from Head of the River at Folly
Bridge (west end of High Street) and from Cherwell Boathouse in north Oxford
(Barwell Road off Banbury Road) for a different stretch of river about
30 minutes walk from central Oxford.
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Binsey treacle well: (W
on ring road map) A delightful walk in the summer to St
Margarets Church which is a tiny unassuming little church in the middle
of fields at the end of Binsey Lane off the Botley Road leading out of Oxford
to the west. A traditional Oxford legend
of St
Frideswide refers to how she "hid at Bampton in a certain wood called
Binsey" (Christchurch cathedral has a series of stained
glass windows designed by William Morris in 1859 representing the story).
At Binsey there is a small church to the west of which there is a holy well
reputed to cure eye problems. King Henry VIII with his retinue visited.
This well became the "treacle well" of Alice in Wonderland. If you have
some energy left you can pick your own strawberrys at the PYO farm on Binsey
Lane! |
For reservations, call Guillemette 44 (0) 1865 438734
or e-mail oxfordtours@ntlworld.com
