A Magical Guide to Oxford

"I wonder anybody does anything at Oxford but dream and remember, the place is so beautiful. One almost expects the people to sing instead of speaking. It is all like an opera."
-William Butler Yates

I can’t remember when Oxford first got into my consciousness, it seems as if it was always there, I always knew about that university city despite being a small town American girl destined to go to school in state. But somewhere, at some point, from some book I read, conversation I overheard, or movie I saw, Oxford got into me. I always knew it, always loved it.
    
It was only a year ago when I really began to understand Oxford, I was curious and interested about going to school at that great English Institution, then a girl who’s videos I watch on YouTube got accepted for a master’s program at Oxford, and Oxford became the epitome to me of academic achievement. She who gets into Oxford is smart. She who goes to Oxford not only goes to study, but to live.
    
I’m not going to Oxford to study (at least, not yet), but while I was in England I made the 50 minute train ride from Paddington Station to Oxford. 

Oxford has a nickname that haunts me, “The City of Dreaming Spires.” I assume it’s because there are so many spires, and the city is full of dreamers.
    
Oxford is both a university and a city. There is no start to Oxford University and end to The City of Oxford, they are one and the same. 
    
Oxford was established in the 1100’s when the King of England didn’t want English students to study at the University of Paris. Since then, Oxford has grown and thrived becoming one of the most prestigious universities in the world. Hundreds of famous and influential men and women studied in this grand city. 
    
Of course, I didn’t go to Oxford to study, I went there to sightsee, so that's what I’ll be telling you all about today. 
    
Oxford is the perfect city for dreamers, people who want to feel like they’ve fallen into a different world. After visiting Oxford, the city has become, in my mind, the hub for fantasy literature. There is magic in Oxford, and the stories connected with the city reflect that. ​

Lewis Carrol and his Alice - 

Very few of us have escaped the rabbit hole that is Alice in Wonderland. This delightful children’s story full of smiling cats, chaotic tea parties, and white roses painted red, got its start in Oxford. Lewis Carrol was a mathematics professor at the university. A fellow professor had a young daughter named Alice Liddel, who became a close friend of Carrol. She was the inspiration for the petite little Alice we all know and love so dearly. Their adventures around the city became the inspiration for this children’s fantasy. There is a store in Oxford devoted to Alice, not only does it specialize in Alice themed merchandise, but it is also a location that was written into Alice in Wonderland and has significance for the real Alice Liddel. 
    
The shop was a candy store in the time when Alice lived there, this was the place where she would go to buy candy, and in the novel it appears as the old sheep shop. 
    
​It’s a tiny store, but definitely worth a visit if you love Alice. 

Extra :Wonderland Trials -

If you’ve seen my first reading vlog, you would probably know that this winter I fell in love with the book The Wonderland Trials by Sara Ella. This is a retelling of Alice in Wonderland as a YA fantasy novel in a dystopian setting. Alice Liddel is the name of the main character in the book, and her and her sister Charlotte live in Oxford. So if you are a fan of the Curious Realities duology, you will definitely want to visit Oxford.

The Wardrobe, the Lampost, and Oxford -

The first fantasy novel many of us encountered was a slim book entitled The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe. We met four siblings who find a passage into a world that is always winter, never Christmas. 
    
C.S. Lewis was a resident of Oxford, having attended university there and later teaching. It was in Oxford where he supposedly got inspiration for some of the main details in his most famous work. 
    
​The story goes that one night, after a church service, Lewis stepped out and it was snowing, he saw a door with a lion and two mythical creatures carved on it, then he turned to his right and saw this lit up lamppost. Any Narnia fan will understand that significance.  If you are a Narnia fan, this should be on your bucket list.

The Inklings -

If you know, you know. I know there are a  lot of you reading this who know far more than me and care far more about this than I do, but Oxford was the home of the Inklings. This is the writers group that C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien (Lord of The Rings) was a part of. The pub they regularly met at - The Eagle and Child is located in Oxford near Magdala College, though it is now closed. But fantasy authors making pilgrimages should still make a stop here. 

Hogwarts is My Home -

I wouldn't be talking about fantasy lit in Oxford if I didn’t talk about the most famous film series that was filmed in Oxford, Harry Potter.

Though the city isn’t what directly inspired J.K. Rowling to write the Harry Potter books, it is where many scenes were shot for the film series. 

As a huge Harry Potter fan (I love both the books and the movies), and a self proclaimed Hermoine Granger, I was thrilled to see some of the places where the movie was shot. There are locations all around Oxford that appear in the films (specifically the first movie), but easiest to access is the school of divinity in the Bodleian libraries where they set the Hogwarts infirmary in the first movie, and my personal favorite line (“Alas, earwax”) was spoken.

For the Writer -

If you, like me, are a fiction writer, I would highly recommend visiting the Write, Cut, Rewrite exhibit that is going on at the New Bodleian library. It’s on display until the beginning of 2025. It’s a very small exhibit, but it has some great manuscripts that show changes and edits very famous writers made in their work. A great place for Lord of The Rings fans to stop, as there is a page and an illustration in Tolkein’s hand.  Austenites can rejoice in seeing Jane's own hand on a carefully revised page from her unfinished work The Watsons. Other items of note are a part of Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein, George Elliot’s notebook, and some of T.S. Eliot's edited work.

More Bookish Goodness -

If you are in Oxford and looking for even more bookish delights, look no further than Blackwell’s bookstore. A mainstay of Oxford culture, there are many locations in the city. The selection is great, and the bookstores are so cozy and perfect. Everyone knows that the best souvenir is a book, the main Blackwell’s location has a section with books all about Oxford.

Now, I know there are some people who read this blog who don’t travel for bookish reasons, (totally okay, sad, but okay), so here are some other great things that can be seen and done in Oxford that anyone will enjoy.
    
​There are many companies in Oxford who offer tours, both bus and walking tours. We took a free walking tour throughout the city. It was listed as free, but it’s really more a pay what you like situation, so just be aware of that. The guide we had was very knowledgeable though, and she took us all around the city, making sightseeing a lot easier. The tour of course took us to a few colleges, under the Bridge of Sighs, and right by the iconic Radcliffe Camera (pictures of these are in the beginning of the post).

Another place we visited while in Oxford was the university science museum. It was not really my thing, but they had a whole exhibit on Typhoid, and they also had a blackboard with Einstein’s handwriting on it.

One of my favorite things we did in Oxford was walk through the Christ Church Meadows. Oxford is a university with many “colleges” in it, though they are all Oxford university. Christ Church (a school not a church) is one of the most famous of those colleges. They have a meadow at the school which is incredibly beautiful, you get to admire both the beautiful Oxford architecture, and the flowers that grow in the meadow. It feels like being in a fairy tale.

After classes are out, many schools let you go into certain parts of them, some are free, but many charge. A great way to see some of the college for free is to attend a church service at one of the many chapels. 
    
We went to Evensong at Christ Church Cathedral, it was beautiful. Both the architecture and the service.
    
For food, Oxford is relatively cheap, most places we found were grab and go type places. There is also an Oxford covered market that we wandered through, there are lots of food options there. 
    
​So, that is a small glimpse of Oxford, and I know there is so much more that this beautiful city has to offer, this city of dreaming spires. 

What do you think? Have you visited Oxford, or do you want to? What stands out to you the most?

Have a great week loves, and I’ll be back very soon with the last blog post from my England trip (I’m so excited for the post I can hardly contain it!). Also, I have three London vlogs (if you can't find the first one, it's because it's a short on the shorts page on the channel) up on my YouTube channel, and my Oxford vlog is coming out later this week, so be sure to check all of those out!

Belle Thomas

​Belle is the writer and dreamer behind An Old Fashioned Girl. She is passionate about reminding girls of their identity in Christ, classic books, history, Louisa May Alcott, and earl grey tea.