OXFORD PULSE
OxFOrD’s Fame acaDemy
Residents and natives of Oxford are known as Oxonians. The list of famous Oxonians would fill a book but among the most celebrated would be Oscar Wilde, Lewis Carroll, Lawrence of Arabia, CS Lewis and JR Tolkien. And that’s just the very late great literary folk. Iris Murdoch lived here with her husband the academic John Bayley, while John Betjeman wrote at some length about this, his favourite city. Twenty-five British prime ministers have attended Oxford including Gladstone, Herbert Asquith, Attlee, Macmillan, Wilson, Heath, Thatcher and Blair.
More recently, the city has enjoyed the patronage of housing some of the celebrity ‘elite’ including Jeremy Clarkson, Rowan Atkinson, Raymond Blanc and Richard Branson, Iain McEwan, Colin Dexter, Sir Roger Bannister and Chelsea Clinton. The city was also made famous in the
pop world by the Small Faces psychedelic song ‘Itchycoo Park’: “Over bridge of sighs To rest my eyes in shades of green Under dreamin’ spires To Itchycoo Park, that’s where I’ve been What did you do there? I got high...”
Life’s a
blast when you live in Oxford
leisure experiences
There is an equally diverse list of activities to fill the leisure hours without difficulty. During my visit in February I could have gone to the Bob Marley Festival, joined an Inspector Morse Tour, explored Queer Oxford with a Walk on the Wild Side or gone equally barmy in the Ladies Hen Night which offered male nudity at a venue in Crotch Street. I kid you not. More elegant perhaps was the
Above: The bells ring from Carfax Tower Left: Training for the big event in Spring
opportunity to enjoy the Oxford Snowdrop Weekend followed by the ‘After Eight Service’ at Christ Church which was punted as an event which featured a wide range of music, readings and conversation, described as ‘a cross between BBC Radio 4’s Something Understood and Friday Night with Jonathan Ross.’ If academia is more your bent there was also one of the series of Oxford Amnesty Lectures 2010: Self-Evident Truths? Human Rights and the Enlightenment given by Professor James Tully. Book early for that one. Sporting types are spoilt for choice
above and beyond the boating. An ice rink, three golf clubs, Oxford United FC, greyhound racing, speedway, archery, athletics, fencing, horse riding... anything, everything and quite a lot besides. Oxford is the favoured university for future famous luvvies and the Oxford Playhouse, the New Theatre, the Burton Taylor Theatre, the Creation Theatre and the Old Fire Station all offer endless theatricals, musicals, dance and panto, plus, for certain types of a certain age, Noddy in Toyland. Before exhaustion sets in, pubs clubs and
Christ Church is
Oxford’s largest college and the Cathedral Church for Oxford
cathedrals supply a vast array of music and song before crawling home or, if you are not sufficiently fortunate to be an Oxonian, crashing into bed at one of the city’s smart hotels – my choice would be Malmaison or the Randolph, or even, if its been a good year(!) the Manoir aux Quat’ Saisons.
PROPERTYdrum MARCH 2010 25
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