Going to Class Oxford Style

One of the real treats about studying here at Oxford has been the amazing buildings one gets to see on the way to and fro. So we thought we’d spend the three posts this week giving you a small visual tour of what it is like going to lectures here. Today is arguably the least entertaining of the three (unless you work for Main Roads or somesuch) as we’ll be taking the journey from Wycliffe Hall where my study desk is through to the outside of New College (which is ‘New’ in the sense that it has been around since the 14th Century…) where I attended some great lectures on Heidegger’s Being and Time this term (that finished the week before last).

Wednesday we’ll pick up the journey inside New College to the building where the lecture room is situated. And Friday we’ll follow the path I take to meet with my tutor/supervisor in Christ Church.

But such a journey of a thousand miles (not literal miles, in case you’re worried, they’re merely poetic) begins with a single step. And so here we are at the intersection outside Wycliffe Hall. It took more than a single step to get here from my study desk, but that’s poetic license for you.



We’re facing in the opposite direction to where we are about to go. The benefit of this however (apart from the virtual exercise you’re about to get by turning around) is that it captures just how ‘modern’ (and therefore ugly…) some of the buildings in Oxford can be. It’s not a tourist city, where nothing has a function except for tourism. The old buildings are put to new uses, and in places new buildings (even by Aussie standards!) have been constructed. Well, it’s time to push off.



This is the road that is the most direct route from Wycliffe to New College, hence (once I worked that out—which took four weeks…) is the route I’d take. It’s also the route we took to Matriculate. On the left is a magnificently kept public garden that stretches for a fair while (nothing like Brisbane’s Southbank or Sydney’s Centennial Park, but a good size nonetheless). On the right, are some more fairly modern buildings. We’ll walk on.



We’re now passing around the gentle curve you could just see in the distance in the previous shot, we’ll keep walking.



We’re another 100 metres or so along, and the park is behind us, there’s buildings on both sides. Let’s look at the building to our left.



That is the engineering building. Personally, I suspect it’s wasted on them. From my experience of engineers I think most of them would be more comfortable in one of these buildings that we passed by a bit earlier on our walk.




Anyway, aesthetic failings of engineers aside, we’ve now reached the ‘city centre’ of Oxford and pedestrian traffic has picked up a bit.



We’ll be passing through the intersection and going straight on and just around the corner.



We’re just gone around the corner and turned left. Behind us is the place where the photo of me was taken immediately after I matriculated. This arch is apparently a big deal. If I understand things correctly then it was made to help counter an English version of the Aussie cultural cringe, duplicating the Bridge of Sighs in Venice. So I suppose it warrants a closer look.



Sigh.

Anyway, our trip goes under this arch and down the alleyway, which is, for me, one of the most quintessentially mediaeval-feeling parts of Oxford.



We’ve just turned right. Notice how the entire feel of the place has changed. The lane is small, the walls loom and they are a much darker colour than much of what Oxford is built with. There’s a few places in Oxford where you turn a corner and feel like you’ve completely changed your surroundings. This is definitely one of those.



We’ve just turned left, we’ll be heading to the end of the lane, even though there’s an option to turn right. Turning right would take us on around the side of New College, and we want that door up ahead. It’s the side door to New College.



There we are. We’ve made it to the door of New College. As you can see most people who are not named Goliath don’t need to use the whole door they made. So they’ve kindly set up a kind of small-door-within-a-large-door arrangement. A kind of kitty flap for normal sized humans.

You’ll notice I mentioned this was the side door. Non-residents can’t get in through this door unless we just happen to get there as a resident is coming or going. That’s right, for the first couple of weeks, I was taking the wrong entrance to class (and it made me late twice as I had to wait for someone so I could get through). Nonetheless, that ill-fated path is far more picturesque, so we’ll pick it up again on Wednesday. But before we go I want you to look up for a moment.



That’s an Oxford college for you. Even a minor side door has exquisite statues 10 metres above it, that are virtually impossible to make out clearly without some kind of telephoto lens. It’s an amazing place to walk to class. Maybe John Woodhouse would like to incorporate some features into the new Moore College? MDB