Oxford - University buildings

The former Indian Institute

The new year has set us thinking about things do and and an early idea was to do a guided tour of Oxford. Oxford is not far away, but we have only a sketchy idea of what it is like. So we signed up for a tour organised by the Bodleian Library. Luckily enough there were no other participants and we had the guide all to ourselves. We started from the steps of the Weston Library and were introduced to three fine buildings left, centre and right of where we met.

The Indian Institute was set up to encourage and support greater research into Indian literature and culture. It was completed in 1893. Unfortunately there were few Indian students and the Institute become almost entirely a training ground for future members of the Indian Civil Service. After what seems to have been a long period of decline the site was taken over by the Oxford Martin School, founded by James Martin.

Moving our gaze to the right we see the Clarendon Building (above), built for the University Press in 1711-15 and designed by Nicholas Hawksmoor. The portico with four Tuscan giant columns. Pevsner describes the building as an "excessively grave and pretentious building for its purpose", which seems a bit harsh.

The next grand building is the Sheldonian Theatre of 1663-9, Wren's first work of architecture. Our guide pointed out a small carving of a wren which we would never have noticed. The carved heads on the pillars surrounding the building are not of anyone in particular.

Behind the Sheldonian is the entrance to the Divinity School, which Pevsner says was begun about 1420.

The courtyard has a wonderful towered gateway on one side displaying  Tuscan, Doric, Ionic, Corinthian and Composite columns - al part of showing off.

... and a rather Gothick (Pevsner) facade opposite.

Inside the vault is "one of the marvels of Oxford", but Pevsner insists that it should be described as a lierne vault rather than a fan vault.

Emerging from the Divinity School, we made a short detour to see the Bridge of Sighs (or Hertford Bridge), which joins two parts of Hertford College). It was completed as recently as 1913-14. I can't resist observing that it is not a patch on the Bridge of Sighs in St John's College Cambridge (1831) or indeed the original in Venice.

We doubled back to see the famous Radcliffe Camera, a library and reading room, which was funded by a legacy of £40,000 from John Radcliffe. It is a magnificent sight. It was the earliest example in England of a circular library.

Standing back from the Radcliffe Camera, there is a fine view of All Souls College, a College which is primarily an academic research institution, with no undergraduate students.

From here we passed the University church and the facades of a number of Colleges. Then in Kybald Street I spotted the former Parsons Almshouse (one of my special interests). In 1959 the building became part of University College through the gift of American donors who built a new Parsons’ Almshouse in St. Clements. It seems now to be integrated into College accommodation and is indeed where Bill Clinton stayed when he was a Rhodes scholar.

Finally, we walked along Broad Street we spotted one of Antony Gormley's figures on top of a nearby roof. Perched on top of Blackwell's Art and Poster Shop on Oxford's Exeter College, the seven-foot-tall statue is one of a series of sculptures called “Another Time II,”  The bronze nude in Oxford weighs half a ton and was the gift of an anonymous benefactor in 2009. I rather liked the almost symmetrical arrangement of my photo.

We didn't see the interiors of any of the Colleges and hopefully that will be an outing for another day.

Conditions: grey and bitterly cold.

Rating: five stars, a most interesting and enjoyable tour.