12 Things To Do in Oxford, United Kingdom

Why do you need to go to Oxford? Well, it is one of the top 5 Universities in the World. It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Albert Einstein and other famous people graduated here. Harry Potter was shot here.

Here are my 12 Things To Do in Oxford, United Kingdom!

1.) Have yourself checked with the Experts

There are many well known specialists who have opened their clinics in Oxford. I bet these Doctors are also Oxford graduates?

2.) Spend some hours in The Ashmolean Museum

Here is the link for our Ashmolean Museum article.

3.) Pray at the University Church of St. Mary The Virgin

4.) Selfie with a Dinosaur at The Natural History Museum Oxford

5.) Check Out Pitt Rivers Museum

Founded in 1884, it has more than 500,000 items from all over the world representing different periods of human existence. Pitt Rivers is an English officer in the British Army, ethnologist, and archaeologist.

6.) Take a pic of the Radcliffe Camera

The building was named after John Radcliffe whose estate funded the construction and maintenance of the site. It was designed by the most influential architect in the 1800’s James Gibbs. One of the most striking in Radcliffe’s Camera is its circularity and its location in the heart of Oxford.

7.) Go inside The Bodleian Libraries

The Bodleian Library was founded in 1598 and opened in 1602 by Sir Thomas Bodley. Now over 400 years later it forms part of the Bodleian Libraries, a network of 28 libraries across the University of Oxford, serving the academic community in Oxford as well as scholars from around the world. The Bodleian Libraries is the largest university library system in the United Kingdom, welcoming more than 2 million readers per year. There are over 13million printed items in the Bodleian collections and over 80,000 e-journals. The Bodleian Librries’ outstanding special collections include rare books and manuscripts, classical papyri, maps, music, art and printed ephemera.

8.) Try to enter Christ Church at least by 4PM

The architecture, people and way of life at Christ Church have inspired authors and filmmakers. Christ Church’s literary link was forged by Charles Dodgson- Lewis Carroll- in Alice’ Adventures in Wonderland.

Dodgson studied, taught and lived at Christ Church for 47 years. The then Dean’s daughter, Alice Liddell, was immortalised in his stories. The Dining Hall has many connections with Caroll’s fantastic tales. High on the left-hand wall, the fifth window from the entrance shows portraits of Alice and creatures from the book.

The Quads, Cloister and Hall Staircase have been used in a number of films including The Golden Compass and Harry Potter. Professor McGonagall welcomes Harry and his classmates to Hogwarts at the top of the Hall Stairs and in the Cloister, Harry is shown the Quidditch trophy his father won when he was a seeker.

Iconic Things To See in Christ Church:

a.) The Meadow and Meadow Building- The Venetian Gothic style was reputedly favored by the famous Christ Church art historian John Ruskin.

b.) The Hall Staircase- A door at the bottom of the staircase has the words ‘No Peel’ studded into it. This was a protest against the Home Secretary, Sir Robert Peel (a Christ Church man) who in 1829 proposed greater freedom for Catholics.

c.) The Great Hall- is the largest pre-Victorian college Hall in Oxford or Cambridge and seats up to 300 people. It has a magnificent ‘hammerbeam’ ceiling and portraits of many famous members of Christ Church can be seen on the wall, including a few of the thirteen Prime Minister educated at the college.

d.) Tom Quad- became known as Tom Quad in the seventeenth century after the six-ton bell ‘Great Tom’ was installed in Christopher Wren’s tower.

e.) The Cathedral- much of the ancient priority church was rebuilt between 1170 and 1190. The Cathedral used to extend towards the space now occupied by Tom Quad. Cardinal Wolsey knocked down three bays of the nave to make way for the college building. (i) Jonah Window- is of great interest because only the figure of Jonah is made of stained glass. The rest of the window consists of small panels of painted glass, showing the city of Nineveh in minute detail. (ii) St Michael Window is the Cathedral’s largest window. It contains Victorian glass showing the Archangel Michael leading his army of angels to defeat the devil, who is depicted as a dragon beneath St. Michael’s feet. The window illustrates a scene from Revelation, the final book in the Bible. (iii) Vaulted Ceiling is the chief architectural glory of the Cathedral. Its beautiful ribs splay out from 12 stone lanterns which appear to hang miraculously in mid-air. In the centre of the vault small interconnecting ‘lierne’ ribs create eight-pointed stars, forming an image of heaven high above the Cathedral.

9.) Take a pic of the Corpus Christi College

Since 1517, the college was a place of Renaissance learning in humanities and sciences for the service of both the English Church and State. It was founded by Richard Fox, Bishop of Winchester and a trusted political advisor to Kings Henry VII and Henry VIII.

Current contemporary graduates of the college are philosophers Isaiah Berlin and Thomas Nagel, writer Vikram Seth and both David and Ed Miliband.

10.) Take a pic of Oriel College

Since the college is located in a property called ‘La Oriole’, gradually the college came to be called by that name. Current courses offered in the college are Biochemistry, Biomedical Sciences, Chemistry, Classical Archaeology and Ancient History, Classics (Literae Humaniores), Classics and English, Classics and Modern Languages, Classics and Oriental Studies, Computer Science, Computer Science and Philosophy, Engineering Science, English and Modern Languages, English Language and Literature, History, History (Ancient and Modern), History and Economics, History and Modern Languages, History and Politics, Law, Mathematics, Mathematics and Computer Science, Mathematics and Philosophy, Medicine, Modern Languages (and Lingustics), Music, Philosophy (Joint Honours), Philosophy and Modern Languages, Philosophy and Theology, Philosophy, Politics and Economics, Physics, Physics and Philosophy, and Theology and Religion.

11.) Visit other significant buildings with your special someone

It is a UNESCO World Heritage site and there are a lot of significant buildings. It is a product of wonderful scientists such as Einstein and others. I wonder where they roam and fell in love in Oxford.