Oxford, a city of doors
Oxford is a city of doors. Big doors, tiny doors, doors within doors. There are grand fortified gateways to colleges built to keep the townsfolk out, and plain doors with…
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Trevor Joseph and Slade Camp
Trevor Joseph was three when he moved with his mother to Fourth Avenue, Slade Park, Headington. 64 years later and we are trying to find the location where his house…
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Campion Hall’s black room
A couple of weeks ago I was delighted to be invited into Campion Hall. They’d recently given a fresh lick of paint to their old senior common room, what in…
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Up the tower, down the tower and for a short while locked in the tower.
I’m attempting to climb all the towers in Oxford. The body being willing. And so, as the festival of Michaelmas approaches (29 September, traditionally one of the four quarter days…
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The Swift Hotel
I cannot count the number of times I have been inside the Oxford University Natural History Museum. A short walk from my home, I come to marvel at its glorious…
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The Stone Saints Retirement Home
Antonia Hockton has been coming to New College in Oxford twice a year for the past 26 years. She arrives as the students leave, for the long vacation. For this…
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The tower, the college and the weather station
The forecast was rain, so I took an umbrella to Green Templeton College for the tour I had booked through Oxford’s Civic Society. It’s not a famous college. For a…
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The medieval floor tiles of the Greyfriars
It’s easy to miss them as you glide up to the top floor of the new Westgate Centre. But glance to your right and there on the wall is a…
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Meeting up at Carfax Tower
We have the Reverend Carteret Fletcher to thank for saving Carfax Tower. Since the 13th century, this landmark building has stood at Oxford’s central crossroads, themselves the final confluence for…
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Looking for Gerald
If there isn’t already a grotesques and gargoyles tour of Oxford there really should be. Characterful stone carvings celebrating all of life from monsters to mermaids, demons to dragons, professors…
