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University Life 101

Planning a visit to Oxford

The City of Dreaming Spires, robed dons, budding intellectuals, and punting on the Cherwell is today surrounded by sprawling suburbs and clogged with the bustle of both a university town and a small industrial city.

But don’t let that keep you from making a pilgrimage to the collection of gloriously medieval colleges that matriculated the likes of John Donne, Samuel Johnson, Christopher Wren, William Penn, Charles Dodgson (otherwise known as Lewis Carroll), Graham Greene, and Percy Bysshe Shelley.

Actually, Shelley never graduated; he was kicked out for helping write a pamphlet on atheism. (Now he has a memorial on Magpie Lane—go figure.)

Getting there

Oxford is a comfortable day trip from London, but to really get to know the place takes an overnight stay or two (or enrollment at the university). Regular trains from London’s Paddington Station take just over an hour.

Oxford Express provides coach service from London’s Victoria Station (+44-01865-785-400; www.oxfordbus.co.uk) to the Oxford bus station. Coaches usually depart about every 20 minutes during the day from gate 10 (trip time: about 90 min.). One-way is £9 ($16); a same-day round-trip ticket costs £11 ($20). The Tourist Information Centre (+44-01865-726-871; www.visitoxford.org) is opposite the bus station on Gloucester Green at 15@@nd16 Broad Street. The private Web site www.oxfordcity.co.uk is also packed with good Oxfordian resources.

Seeing the sights

Oxford University’s “campus” is the city itself (+44-01865-270-000; www.ox.ac.uk), spread over the town in a series of 36 colleges, each with its own long history and arcane traditions -- such as Christ Church College, whose Great Tom bell rings every evening at 9:05 p.m. to signal the closing of the school gates, pealing 101 times in honor of the college’s original 101 students. Many of the colleges incorporate architectural tidbits from their foundings in the 13th to 16th centuries.

Because the primary business here is education, not tourism, fairly strict rules keep visits limited to certain areas at certain times and in small groups (six people maximum). Most colleges, when they are open, allow visitors to poke around discreetly (check the notice boards outside each college for specifics).

To detail all of Oxford’s colleges is impossible, but the top ones include Christ Church (+44-01865-276-492; www.visitchristchurch.net), dating from 1525 with the largest quadrangle in town and that big ol’ bell (the top half of the bell tower was designed by Christopher Wren). The college chapel also happens to be the local cathedral, one of the tiniest in England.

Alice in Wonderland’s Lewis Carroll once studied here, but perhaps its most famous “students” are fictional—it plays a major role, of course, in the first part of The Golden Compass, and many scenes in the Harry Potter movies were filmed here, including the grand staircase, the cloisters, and the Great Hall where the young wizards and witches dine (though that one was actually replicated on a sound stage). The college is open to visitors Monday to Saturday from 9 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., Sunday from noon to 5:30 p.m.; admission is £4 ($7).

Try also to fit in Merton College (+44-01865-276-310; www.merton.ox.ac.uk), the oldest (1264) with a library whose odd collections include Chaucer’s astrolabe. Merton is open weekdays 2 p.m. to 4 p.m., weekends 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.; admission is free, but tours of the Old Library run £1 ($1.80).

Perhaps the prettiest overall, Magdalen College (+44-01865-276-000; www.magd.ox.ac.uk) is a 15th-century gem surrounded by a park and overlooking the Cherwell River. It’s open from 1 p.m. (from noon July through Sept) to 6 p.m. or dusk, whichever comes first; admission is £3 ($5).

You can also finally pay a visit to the famed Bodleian Library (+44-01865-277-224; www.bodley.ox.ac.uk), long closed to visitors. It is one of the oldest libraries in Europe—operating continuously since 1602, but begun long before that—and the second largest in England (after the British Library), containing copies of every book copyrighted in the U.K. It also has some terribly scenic rooms and architectures—so much so that it stood in for Hogwart’s Library in the Harry Potter films. It’s open for hour-long guided tours Monday to Friday at 10:30 a.m. 11:30 a.m., 2 p.m., and 3 p.m. (no morning tours November to February), and year-round Saturdays at 10:30 a.m. 11:30 a.m. Admission is £3.50 ($6).

Of course the campus isn’t all that Oxford has to offer. Perhaps your first order of business in town can be to climb the academically unaffiliated Carfax Tower (+44-01865-792-653) in the center of town with an aerial city map in tow. The maps are handed out at the bottom to get a bird’s-eye handle on the city layout. The tower is open daily from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; admission is £1.40 ($2.50) adults, 60p ($1.10) children aged 5 to 15.

If you only visit one museum in town, make it the Ashmolean Museum (+44-01865-278-000; www.ashmol.ox.ac.uk), founded in 1683 and one of Britain’s best. Beyond the musical instruments, antiquities, and international curios, the painting collection is most impressive, featuring works by Bellini, Raphael, Michelangelo, Rembrandt, and Picasso. The museum is open Tuesday to Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sunday from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m.; admission is free.

Punting on the Cherwell

In most of England a “punter” simply means someone who goes to pubs. In Oxford, however, being a punter involves actual punting: balancing precariously at the back end of a 24-foot-long skiff, gripping a sixteen-foot pole, and attempting to shove a flat-bottomed boat in something resembling a straight line down a narrow twisting stream overhung with tree branches, picturesque low bridges, and other maritime hazards...

Where to stay in Oxford

You can hole up for the night at the Eastgate Hotel, 23 Merton St., The High (+44-0870-400-8201; Fax: 01865-791-681; www.eastgate-hotel.com). The hotel is near the river, with modern £96 ($173) doubles in a country inn setting.

Where to dine in Oxford

Oxford’s classic eatery is the Cherwell Boathouse Restaurant, Bardwell Road (+44-01865-552-746; www.cherwellboathouse.co.uk), right on the river with a French cuisine of fresh ingredients and half-priced kids’ meals.

For pub grub, follow in the footsteps of Thomas Hardy, Elizabeth Taylor, and Bill Clinton (who studied at Oxford), all former regulars of The Turf Tavern, 4 Bath Place (+44-01865-243-235; www.o-h-m.co.uk/turf), a venerable 13th-century watering hole.