| Destination: BRITAIN | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Things To Know
Oxford's Colleges
The Market Town The Original Alice |
Oxford's Colleges This is a small city, and you can walk around central Oxford in under an hour, but it is the density and complexity of colleges and great buildings that is so absorbing. The heart of the university lies between High Street and Broad Street and is enclosed by the colleges of Brasenose, All Souls, Hertford and Exeter. The Church of St. Mary the Virgin is on High Street. Behind St. Mary's is Radcliffe Square, which has the elegant 18th-century Renaissance rotunda of the Radcliffe Camera (chamber) at its heart. On the east side of the square is All Souls College. On the west side is Brasenose College, named after a traditional brass “mask” door knocker and a treasured college possession; a replica can be seen on the great oak doors. From Radcliffe Square you can walk into the Schools Quadrangle of the Bodleian Library, with its superb Jacobean entrance tower and decorative inner walls. Through the arch on the north side of the quadrangle is the Sheldonian Theatre, where the Encaenia (the ceremony to confer honorary degrees) and the degree ceremony for Oxford graduates are held. The Radcliffe Square area is the heart of the university, but try to visit some of the colleges when their grounds are open to the public. Include Christ Church, the largest and most famous of the colleges, and do not miss nearby Merton College, reputedly the oldest of them all and certainly one of the finest, with its delightful gardens, ancient quadrangle, medieval library and chapel. Adjoining Merton Street, cobbled and quiet, is one of the finest parts of the city. Merton counts among its alumni 14th-century religious reformer John Wycliffe, poet T. S. Eliot and actor-singer Kris Kristofferson. Then head east toward Magdalen (pronounced “Maudlin”) and its superb tower, Cloister Quad, gardens and riverside walks. Magdalen alumni include playwright Oscar Wilde and actor Dudley Moore. |
|
||||||||||||||||||||
