Blackwell's Literary Tour of Oxford

The Original Literary Tour
Tuesdays at 2pm, Thursdays at 11am
An interesting and informative tour around Oxford and the university led by a knowledgeable and trained guide. Visit locations where Dorothy L. Sayers, W. H. Auden, T. E. Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia), Percy Bysshe Shelley, C. S. Lewis, J. R. R. Tolkein, Alan Bennett, Lewis Carroll and many more lived and studied. The tour also includes a visit to The Old Inn; a building older than Oxford University itself, home of stunning Sixteenth Century cloth paintings and stopover of William Shakespeare. Please note: this tour includes some stairs.


Short history of Oxford
The city of Oxford was founded in 1007, making 2007 the year of its 1,000 birthday. Although the city began as a ford of oxen it became a seat of learning as early as 1100, when students lived in Academic Halls and paid their Masters for their educations. Each Master took up to six students, a tutorial system that continues today in Oxford and Cambridge. In 1263 the first college was founded as an institution that ran independently of the Masters and prevented them from taking the students money without paying their dues. There are now 38 colleges that belong to the University of Oxford, education approximately 16,000 students.

1. Exeter College
J.R.R. Tolkien studied there as an undergraduate. He wrote "The Hobbit" and the series "the Lord of the Rings"

2. Museum of the History of Science
Has free admission and the oldest scientific laboratory in the world located in the basement. Visitors can see a blackboard with Newton's original writing.

3. Sheldonian Theater
The Theater was build by Sir Christopher Wren (the same architect of St. Paul's Cathedral). It is considered one of Oxford's architectural jewels. It seats 1,000 people for conferences and 800 for musical concerts. By the way... Wren didn't study architecture!!!!!

4. Bodleian Library
The Bodleian is a library that has been expanded over time. If you stand in the middle quadrant you have a 17th century building on one side and 15th century on the other. The Camera is one of the last additions and it is where most of the students go to read.

5. Wadham College
This college was founded by the 75 year old window of Nicholas Wadham, who fought against all the relations to establish the institution. Some distinguished alumni include Robert Blake (Cromwell's admiral and founder of British sea-power in the Mediterranean) and Christopher Wren (arquitect of St. Paul's Cathedral after the Great Fire of London).

6. Hollywell Music Room
Although we could not look inside, this concert hall is said to have one of the best acoustics sounds in the world, a sound that has not been able to be reproduced even with today's technology.

7. Bath Place

8. The Turf Tavern and the Old City Wall
The Old City Wall separated the rich from the riff-raff. We were on the riff-raff side.

9. Bridge of Sighs
Reproduction of a bridge in Venice.

10. All Souls's College
This is an academic reserach institution for post-graduate work only. Unlike the other colleges, it is not always open to the public. It is rumored that All Soul's College has the second best wine collection in the country, Buckingham Castle is the first.

11. Merton College

Notable mertonians include: Dr. William Harvey (1645), Sir Richard Steele (1691), T. S. Eliot (1914) and J.R.R. Tolkien (1945) among others.

12. Oriel College
Oriel college was founded in 1326 by King Edward II, it is the fifth oldest of Oxford's Colleges. Rhodes, the founder of the Rhodes Scholarship, studied there and lived only a block away.

13. The Bear Inn

14. Pembroke College
The college was founded in 1624 by King James I and was named after William Herbert, the 3rd Earl of Pembroke who was Shalespeare's patron and University's Chacellor. The main buildings are 17th to 19th century and are made from cotswold limestone. Samuel Johnson and James Smithson (founder of the Smithsonian Institution) both attended the college as undergraduates, even though Johnson had to leave before he completed his degree because of lack of funds. The college still has two desks, teapot and mug that he left there.

15. Christ Church College
Some distinguished people who graduated from Chirst College are: John Locke, Robert Hooke, John Wesley, Robert Peel, William Walton and others. It is one of the largest colleges in the area and it has a bell tower, called Great Tom, that was designed by Christopher Wren and supervised by Dean Fell. At 9:05pm the bell (which weighs 7 tons) is rung 101 times, keeping with a tradition that called the first 100 undergraduates to their respective dorms. The last chime is for luck!

Dorothy L Sayers was the first woman to get a degree at Oxford University. He father was the headmasyer of of Christ Church College and she was born in the headmaster's house.

16. Center of Town

17. Cornmarket Street
Has the oldest building in Oxford, dating back to 1040.

18. The Golden Cross
Small market where Shakespeare's Macbeth was first performed and Inn where he used to stay, which is now a Pizza Express. The walls and fireplace are original and thus protected with a glass sheet.

19. Oxford University
Headquaters for the 38 colleges located in Oxford. It is where the Ashmoleum Museum is located. Oxford is an historic and unique institution. As the oldest university in the English-speaking world, it can lay claim to nine centuries of continuous existence.

20.Lincoln College
Dr. Seuss attended Lincoln as an undergrad. His teacher asked him to make writing fun... so he did! It is one of the colleges that remains almost completely unaltered from its original foundation.

21. Trinity College
Trinity College was founded by Sir Thomas Pope in 1555. A devout catholic with no surviving children, Thomas Pope saw the foundation of an Oxford college as a means of ensuring that he and his family would always be remembered.