The next morning we met Lisa outside the
Visitor Information Centre. She and her husband have set up Wander Oxford (www.wanderoxford.co.uk) and offer two-hour free walking tours of Oxford on
most days. Her enthusiasm for sharing her knowledge of Oxford cannot be missed.
Although she has lived in the area for thirty-two years, this is the first
season she has started providing tours and we were her first private tour. Sheila
had emailed Lisa in advance and she had adapted the tour so that it was
accessible for my scooter. She had also researched the accessibility of various
museums and found the most accessible restaurant she could. Zizzi’s in George
Street if anyone’s interested.
Just along from where we started in
Broad Street is a small cobbled square with a cobbled cross in the middle of
the tarmacked road. This marks the spot where two Anglican Bishops were burnt
at the stake in 1555. They are known as the Oxford Martyrs.
On the roof of Blackwell’s Art and
Poster shop is a 7ft iron statue of a naked man. It was designed by Antony
Gormley, he of The Angel of the North fame. When it had first appeared there in
2009, it had sparked numerous calls to the local police from passers-by concerned
that a man was about to jump of the roof.
A short way further along the street, The
Sheldonian Theatre is one of the first buildings to be designed by Christopher
Wren. The ornate entrance on Broad Street is actually the back. On the pillars
between the railings are heads, each one different. Hidden in the hair of one
of them, opposite the door, is a stone wren.
Everywhere you look in Oxford, the
buildings are decorated with gargoyles and grotesques. The difference, Lisa
told us, is that gargoyles are functional (they usually spout water) and
grotesques are not. Either way, they are weird, wonderful and fascinating.
As we moved round towards the Museum of
science we looked up. In 2009, a series of crumbling grotesques were replaced
with new ones, all designed by children following a competition. Among the nine
designs were Tweedledum and Tweedledee, a Dodo, Aslan and Three men in a boat.
In a square around the corner, high up
in the stonework, is an image of King James I of England and VI of Scotland in
honour of his translation creating The King James Bible. The detail in it is exquisite.
The close by Bodlean Library, Lisa said,
is a reading library but not a lending library. Many of the books it contains
are too precious. Inside, is a copy of every English language book printed
since 1911. Parts of the forever expanding collection are housed in rooms that
had once been accommodation and new buildings have been built.
We moved on around the outside of the
Radcliffe Camera building with its huge dome, and peered through the gates into
the grass square inside Hertford College. High up on one of the walls is an
ornate sundial. I was none the wiser as to the time though. There was no sun.
From here is a stone alleyway leading to
the High Street in which is the door opposite the one C. S. Lewis staggered from
drunk one night. Carved within and around it are images that inspired him to
create the characters of Aslan and Mr Tumnus. At the end of the alley is a
lamppost. Narnia was born.
In the High Street is The Grand Cafe,
the oldest tea shop in England, having opened in the mid 1600s. It’s the place
to go for a delicious cream tea. On the building next door is a blue plaque. “Who’s
that for?” I asked Lisa. “I don’t know,” she said. “Let’s go have a look.” It
celebrates Sarah Cooper who first made Oxford Marmalade there is 1872. “I learn
something new every time I do this tour,” said Lisa.
That makes it sound like she doesn’t know her stuff. Don’t believe it! She told me far more about Oxford in two hours than you can imagine. All of it fascinating and delivered in a way that was both enjoyable and easy to understand.
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