Category / Builders and buildings / College life / Dodos & other Oxford animals
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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 start it’s…
June 22, 2024 -
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 significant part…
June 15, 2024 -
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 those heading…
May 25, 2024 -
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 to pastry…
April 20, 2024 -
Free Triton
You might catch a glimpse of his imposing figure from the window of your carriage as you chug past Oxford on the Cherwell Valley Line from Banbury to Didcot. Walking from Jericho…
April 13, 2024 -
Tambours, Grilles and Unicorns
When I was researching Oxford tokens for a previous ‘Sausage’ post, I came across a coin that had been struck in the mid 17th century with the sign of a tennis racket.…
March 16, 2024 -
Bathing in Paradise
On Thursday 2nd May 1922, The Illustrated Oxford Journal reported the opening of new public baths in Paradise Square, St Ebbe’s. ‘The baths should fulfil a long felt need in the St…
February 24, 2024 -
The Destroy Keble Society
I find it hard to understand why the architecture of Keble College has aroused such animosity. I pass it regularly on my route to the University Parks, and I love the audacity…
February 17, 2024 -
At the Sign of the Three Blackbirds
Imagine if you could design your own currency. Decide on an image to represent you, pop in your initials, a date and a pretty border, make the die, and then have it…
February 3, 2024 -
Sarah Cooper and her jars of sunshine
One of the regular activities that perks me up as I claw my way through dull grey January is marmalade making. A couple of weeks into the New Year, crates of the…
January 27, 2024
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