City of Oxford
The ‘City of Dreaming Spires’ is a beautiful, historic and lively city with plenty to offer everyone. Traditions mingle with modern life to create a unique atmosphere in which to work and socialise.
A visit to Oxford is unique and, not surprisingly, it is one of the most popular places in the world to study English.
The sheer beauty of it's colleges set within a riverside setting, with national and international treasures within a family of museums, is complemented by modern art galleries, multi-cultural cuisine, and good shopping.
For more information about Oxford, please visit the following websites:
www.visitoxford.org www.dailyinfo.co.uk
Places of Interest
Oxford has one of the greatest concentrations of museums, libraries and galleries in the country and is world renowned. Entry to all museums is free.
Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology
The Ashmolean was Britain’s first public museum. It opened in 1683 and houses the university’s collections of art and antiquities. It is the oldest museum to be open to the public in the country and one of the oldest museums in the world.
The Pitt Rivers Museum
This museum holds one of the world’s finest collections of anthropology and world archaeology, with objects from every continent celebrating human cultural creativity.
Natural History Museum
On the same site as Pitt Rivers, this museum houses an outstanding collection of fossils, animals, birds and insects - from dinosaurs to the dodo!
The Sheldonian Theatre
This theatre was built in 1664-8 to a design by Sir Christopher Wren, the architect who also designed St Paul’s Cathedral in London. A beautiful and unique Baroque building, it is frequently used for concerts and university ceremonies.
Oxford University
As the oldest university in the English-speaking world, Oxford is a unique and historic institution. There is no clear date of foundation, but teaching existed at Oxford in some form in 1096 and developed rapidly from 1167, when Henry II banned English students from attending the University of Paris.
Christ Church College
Christ Church is a unique institution, one of the largest colleges in the University of Oxford and, at the same time, the Cathedral Church for the Diocese of Oxford.
Christ Church Picture Gallery
Christ Church is unique among the Oxford and Cambridge colleges in possessing an important collection of Old Master paintings and drawings, housed in a purpose-built Gallery of considerable architectural interest in itself.
The Bodleian Library
One of the world’s largest academic libraries the Bodleian is situated at the heart of the historic University of Oxford in a remarkable group of buildings spanning over 500 years of history. It houses over 8 million books.
It is a 'copyright library' and therefore entitled to a free copy of every book published in this century. It also purchases major foreign works, and finding space to store its vast, varied and ever-expanding collection is an ongoing problem. The solution has often been to build underground stores, and there is one under the lawn on the North side of the Radcliffe Camera with space for one million volumes.
The Radcliffe Camera
The Radcliffe Camera was completed in 1749. The building, which has the third largest dome in Britain, is named after Dr Radcliffe, the Royal Phsyician at the time, who provided the money for its construction. As the Radcliffe Camera is a reading room of the Bodleian Library, it is not open to the public.