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The Magic of Oxford
Oxford is a city that revels in its eccentricity. Street-performers, gowned students punting up the Cherwell river, mad dons conversing in pubs – all of these make up the bizarre and wonderful landscape that is Oxford, coexisting with Medieval and Neo-Gothic buildings and the staid formality of the University of Oxford's cerebral influences. Here are five moments, places, or activities in Oxford that capture some of the city's blend of tradition and insanity. If you've visited the Oxford colleges and found that, while beautiful, they seemed empty without their students, here is a chance to experience the vibrancy of life within and without.
1) Buskers on Cornmarket Street
In most cities, the bustling road that houses all the area's necessary chains is a painful necessity. But in Oxford, the pedestrianized Cornmarket street is home not only to the requisite McDonald's, Pret, WH Smith, and Orange shops, but also to a variety of buskers, from the moving to the tone-deaf. Recently on view were a capella groups, soulful guitarists, men inexplicably in top hats and tails in the late afternoon, and, most bizarrely, a man playing the Irish fiddle while traversing a portable tightrope. Also to be found are leaflet-distributers, from pro-life and political causes to Muslim and Christian groups seeking converts. All these groups make up Oxford's wonderfully weird anthropological landscape.
Hire a punt (vaguely like a gondola) in “Trinity Term” (spring) from the bridge near the Magdalen Roundabout for fourteen pounds an hour and fit four or five people into a lovely boat. Then take it up the river. Pass blossoming flowers, sprouting trees, curious duck, and a fair amount of drunken students reciting poetry from punts of their own.
3) People in Funny Gowns
If you time your arrival to coincide with the University's annual “Matriculation” ceremony, or wait outside the Examination Schools around the closing time of any of the University Exams (some are in March, but most are in June), you will see Oxford students in their full regalia: black pants or skirt, white button-down shirt, ribbon (for the girls), a variety of black gowns, and mortarboard. (Be warned, after the final of their final examinations, students are regularly “trashed” with food and other objects by jovial friends – avoid this unless you're willing to risk being caught in the crossfire). Even if you don't catch a glimpse of “sub fusc,” you are still likely to catch students wearing gowns as they traverse the city for formal dinners, chapel, or even just for fun.
4) Tea at the Queen's Lane Cafe/Drinks at the Grand Cafe
Honestly, the Rose Cafe next door is much nicer, with a more upscale clientele and far better food. But the Queen's Lane Cafe, conveniently opposite from the Exam Schools, where many university lectures are located, is nevertheless bustling enough and cheery enough to be worth its sacrifices – with its wide-windowed view of the High Street and lack of pressure to leave, you may well spend hours people-watching on this corner – or at least until seven on Monday-Saturday, when you can relocate to the opulent Art Deco cocktail bar “The Grand Cafe” on the opposite side of the street for a similar feel for the nighttime.
5) The Magdalen Tower Bells
You don't need to see the top of the tower to experience the real magic of the bells: chiming in slight syncopation, the sound of the bells rings beautifully at regular intervals through the streets of the city, acting as a sort of measured heartbeat for Oxford life. While annoying if you're attempting to sleep right near the tower (not likely, unless you're a Magdalen student), the bells are to Oxford's sounds what the Bodleian Library is to its sights: an aural icon of Oxford's cheery and picturesque anachronism.
By Tara Isabella Burton
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