You can start your acquaintance with the sights of the city from the intersection of Holywell Street and Cutt Street. The university building and one of the main medieval masterpieces of Oxford, the Bodleian Library, rise here. The object impresses with its exterior, interior, collection of books: in terms of their number, the Bodley is second only to the national British Library.
The most beautiful building of the library is the chamber (or rotunda) of Radcliffe, a round building decorated with columns and balustrades. Similar to it, but slightly more modest in execution, is the Sheldon Theater on Broad St, Oxford OX1 3AZ. However, they don’t give performances there, the theater is intended for the solemn events of the university.
Up Cutt Street is the 13th century St. Mary’s Church, the largest in Oxford. It attracts with carved naves and statues, colorful stained-glass windows, and an old organ. From its tower you get great panoramic shots. Perhaps only Christ Church Cathedral (St Aldate’s, Oxford OX1 1DP) can compete with the church in beauty. See educationvv.com for education and training in United Kingdom.
Of the 38 colleges at Oxford University, the most notable are Christ Church (Harry Potter was filmed here), Magdalen (famous for its choristers, organists, deer park and an alumnus named Oscar Wilde) and Merton (his students were a host of famous politicians, scientists who became subsequently Nobel laureates, and even a Japanese prince and princess). Next to Merton and Magdalen is the Oxford Botanical Garden with an interesting collection of typical European and exotic plants.
Very ancient and rather primitive buildings are located just to the west of the center: Oxford Castle – on Oxfordshire Castle, Carfax Tower – on Queen Street. From the latter along Cornmarket Street and Magdalen Street there is a direct road to the Memorial of the Martyrs, which was erected in memory of the British burned in the fire of the Inquisition. Outside the city, tourists will meet with Blenheim Palace – the family “nest” of the Dukes of Marlborough.
- How does Blenheim Palace work?
Museums in Oxford
Museums in Oxford are an order of magnitude smaller than all kinds of architectural curiosities, so it is quite possible to have time to look into everything. The first and main one is the Museum of Natural History (off. site in English). In it, children squeal with delight at the sight of giant skeletons of dinosaurs, prehistoric fish and other fossils, and adults admire the collections of insects and birds, which seem to contain all specimens existing on the planet.
From this museum it is easy to get to another – the Pitt Rivers Museum (off. site in English) – a baron, general, archaeologist and ethnographer who has collected a fantastic collection of costumes, sculptures, weapons, musical instruments and jewelry of the small peoples of Africa, North America, islands Pacific Ocean.
Exhibits from the times of Ancient Egypt and Rome, priceless ceramics and coins, armor of Japanese samurai and paintings from the middle of the last millennium are exhibited in the Ashmole Museum (off. site in English). The Museum of the History of Science organizes thematic exhibitions where visitors can see who, how and with what tools made the greatest scientific discoveries in history.
An art gallery is open in the largest of Oxford’s colleges – Christ Church (off. site in English). Drawings by Leonardo da Vinci and Albrecht Dürer, paintings by Caracci and Tintoretto, sculptures and other creations of human hands are available not only to students, but also to tourists.
Weather
Like the rest of Foggy Albion, Oxford is immersed in eternal melancholy. The amount of precipitation and rainy days here is higher “than the average for a hospital” (read – for Europe). It is driest in April, February and September-October, warmest in summer, especially in July-August. By the way, at this time, students go on vacation, and in the parks, one after another, there are concerts.
Day-night temperature fluctuations are very noticeable, so you should take a light windbreaker and, of course, an umbrella for an evening walk.
In winter, the temperature almost never drops below zero, snowfall is a whole event, because it rarely happens.
Oxford Hotels
Antique on the outside, modern on the inside – that’s what most Oxford hotels are like. They are ready to give shelter to guests both on the outskirts like Cowley and in the very center of the city. Prices, by the way, are quite affordable: even furnished with royal chic, “the best of the best” Macdonald Randolph 5 * asks only 220 GBP per night. What can we say about hostels and hotels of 2-3 * category. In the first, 20 GBP is enough, in the second – 65 GBP.
The view outside the window and the level of “antiquity” of the building can be varied. Scott House invites you to feel like a student (located on one of the campuses of Oxford University).
The old The Richmond Hotel (25 Walton Cres, Oxford OX1 2JG) is waiting for those wishing to rest in the chambers where English lords had their best dreams in the 18th and 19th centuries. Some of its rooms still have furnishings reminiscent of good old England.