← All articles · United Kingdom · 29 November 2015

Oxford

Oxford in November 2015, spent mostly indoors: skulls and skeletons under the glass roof of the Natural History Museum, then the packed cases of the Pitt Rivers.

Oxford in late November 2015 was cold enough to make the decision for us: this would be an indoors day. Which in Oxford is no punishment at all, because the University Museum of Natural History and the Pitt Rivers Museum share one building, cost nothing, and can eat an entire afternoon between them.

The main court of the Oxford University Museum of Natural History, dinosaur skeletons among display cases under a Victorian glass roof held up by slender iron columns — The great court: dinosaurs down the middle, cast iron columns like a Gothic greenhouse, and daylight pouring through the glass roof.

Inga leaning in to look closely at a huge animal skull on open display in the Oxford University Museum of Natural History — Inga going nose to nose with a skull roughly the size of an armchair. Much of the museum is out in the open like this, no glass in the way.

Inga crouching to study the lower shelves of a specimen case in the museum court, skeletons displayed all around — The bottom shelves are where the museum hides its weirdest residents. Worth the crouch.

Through a doorway at the back of the court, the light drops and you walk into the Pitt Rivers, one of the strangest and best museums in Britain: half a million objects stacked case upon case, with a totem pole standing over the lot.

The dim interior of the Pitt Rivers Museum in Oxford, dense glass cases on two levels with a tall carved totem pole rising through the gallery — The Pitt Rivers, lit like a cabinet of secrets. The totem pole gets two storeys to itself.

File Oxford under cities that reward bad weather. For the other end of the day-trip spectrum, there is always the seaside at Brighton.

Oxford, four years earlier

The archive also holds an October 2011 visit, when the weather let us stay outside: the Radcliffe Camera at street level, then the long way up the tower of the University Church for the rooftop version of the city.

Inga standing at the railings in front of the round domed Radcliffe Camera in Oxford, a bicycle leaning on the fence nearby — The Radcliffe Camera, Oxford's great round reading room, with Inga and an obligatory bicycle in attendance.

View from the tower of the University Church over the dome of the Radcliffe Camera and the quad of All Souls College in Oxford — From the tower of the University Church: the Camera's dome up close, All Souls laid out next door.

Rooftop view of the twin Gothic towers and quad of All Souls College in Oxford under a dramatic sky — All Souls and its twin towers collecting a bit of storm light. Spires as far as the eye can be bothered to count.

View from the University Church tower across Oxford college quads, rooftops and a distant chapel spire — The other side of the tower: quads, chimneys and gargoyle-height Oxford, best enjoyed while getting your breath back.

A Gothic stone college gatehouse on Oxford's High Street with carved bay windows and a royal coat of arms above the wooden doors — One of the great carved gatehouses on the High Street, coat of arms included. In Oxford even the front doors have front doors.