Exploring Oxford - Another photo blog

I decided to take a guided tour of the Bodleian Library Saturday. I got into town just before noon and walked the now familiar path to the library. There were several short tours available, but I wanted the hour-long one that didn't start until 2 p.m. With time to kill and a definite chill in the air (the high only went up to about 58F and all I had was my long-sleeve shirt), I went hunting for a place to have lunch. On the other side of the Sheldonian Theatre, I found the White Horse pub. The sign said it served lunch and declared the pub had been used in both the Inspector Morse tv series and Lewis. As a fan of both shows, I decided this was a perfect place to stop.

It was a very tiny pub - long and narrow. It was also really busy. I managed to nab the last table. I had a nice cup of tea before ordering a sandwich. I people watched as I ate. I witnessed the classic Oxford elitists who gathered in the minuscule walkway and wouldn't move for anyone to pass, forcing both staff and customers to climb over stools to get around; the tourists from various countries who possessed varying degrees of knowledge on how a pub worked; and the handful of locals who took the packed atmosphere in stride. An elderly chap ended up near me and struck up a conversation. He was an amiable fellow who seemed genuinely tickled that I was from Florida. I capped off my meal with a half pint of the local bitter. Steve would be so proud. 😄 I can't say I enjoyed the beer, but I didn't hate it. And it cost less than the tea so maybe I should stick to the beer.  I think I drank it a bit too fast, though, because when I left I had a wee buzz. It went away quickly, thankfully.

Suitably warmed, I strolled around for a bit before it was time to check in for my tour. I enjoyed the tour very much. We weren't allowed to take photos within the reading room we visited, but we could in the first three areas we toured. After the Bodleian, I stopped at the Museum of Oxford, which is only a couple of rooms within the Town Hall. There was a wedding and reception being held at the hall so I didn't stay long. I decided to take another stroll around the Christ Church garden. It turned out it was an open day at the college and I got to have a look around within the grounds. I was heartily disappointed that the cathedral was not open. I do love to visit cathedrals, minsters, and old churches. 

Here are the photos I took across my day out:

This is outside the Bodleian's Divinity School. It is directly across from the Sheldonian Theatre. During graduation, students often gather here and then process out that door and into the theatre.

One of the Bodleian doors.

A better view of the processional door. The door was actually added to the room about two centuries after the school was built.

The Sheldonian Theatre as it faces the Divinity School. There was one school's MBA commencement that day. I didn't see the processional, but I did see a few of the graduates walking about in their robes. They're very ornate.

Another door. I can't remember if this was on the Bodleian or the Sheldonian. Sorry.

One of the grotesques that I've come to like so much.

This is part of the building on the left side of the Bridge of Sighs. I liked the roof.

The statue of the Third Earl of Pembroke that stands in the courtyard of the Bodleian. Pembroke donated a rather large collection of manuscripts to the library in 1629. This courtyard is called the Old Quad because the original examination rooms for the Oxford schools surround it. The door behind Pembroke leads to the biggest of these exam rooms, the Divinity School.

This photo is actually from my first photo blog. I'm using it again because I've learned more about the detail of this wall in the Old Quad. This dates to the early 17th Century. If you look closely at the five levels of columns you will notice each set of columns is different. Each set represents one of the five classic architectural styles: Doric, Ionic, Corinthian, Tuscan, and Composite.

Back to the photos from the day. This is a close-up of that same wall. The whole thing commemorates a gift from James I (or VI if you're Scottish) to the library. Here he is bestowing the manuscripts. The woman on the right represents the library. The angel is Virtue, on hand because of the king's generosity. How many books did he donate? They're right there in the sculpture - two. Yep, two books. Ah, it's good to be king, eh?

This is the ceiling of the foyer of the Divinity School.

And this is the main room of the Divinity School. Breathtaking, isn't it? That door on the right is the one I showed earlier that leads to the Sheldonian.

More of the gorgeous ceiling built by William Orchard in the 1480s. The ceiling bosses (455 in all) include coats of arms and the lettering. The letters, when combined, essentially spell out "this was built by William Orchard" in Latin. Or so our tour guide said.

The ceiling is a pendant vault design, a type of gothic architecture. You can see the pendants on the upper right in this photo. Do you see the little knobs in the middle of the band by the pendants? Those are iron reinforcements added to the ceiling by famed architect Christopher Wren in the 17th Century. The school was finished in 1488. After a couple of centuries, it needed a bit of help to keep it from collapsing. It has since been doubly reinforced with modern materials.

You can see the pendants clearly in this shot.

One of the massive windows overlooking the Sheldonian.

In the bottom left is the pulpit. Divinity School students would deliver their treatises from here during examinations. The Divinity School was the university's first purpose-built teaching room.

This is the Convocation House,which is adjacent to the Divinity School. It was built in the 17th Century and is where the university's parliament met. The big chair is where the chancellor sat. Today it is still used when a new chancellor is voted into office, though our tour guide suspects that tradition will soon give way to the convenience of online voting.

Yellow-framed panes of glass in the windows behind and to the right of the chancellor s chair are sundials. This one, in the right-hand window, would alert the chancellor when it was time to leave when it shined on the floor. It no longer works because another university building blocks the light.

This sundial behind the big chair would announce lunch time when it shined on the floor. Right clever. But then, sunshine tends to be at a premium in Oxford. As I understand it, this area is one of the wettest in the country. What did they do then?

Next door to the Convocation House is the Courtroom. Initially it was used solely for university offenses,but eventually was used in cases involving people in any way attached to a university.

After the tour I headed back toward Queen Street and snapped this pic of St. Mary's. I would love to climb the tower and get a birds' eye view of Oxford, but I dare not subject my still-healing hip to 120 steps.

This door caught my eye as I walked. 

Interesting golden satyrs. I am amused by the position of the drain.

This is the death mask of Oliver Cromwell. Oxford played a big role in the English Civil War that saw Charles I beheaded and the monarchy ended (for a time). But Oxford was on the side of the king, so I'm not sure why it has a death mask of Cromwell, the head of the commonwealth that formed in the wake of the war. 

Walking from the museum toward Christ Church College. As you can see, it was a very gray day. But it never rained.

A newly-married couple atop one of the ubiquitous open-top sightseeing busses. The whole wedding party and family was aboard and they were having their wedding photos taken. Dozens of people, like me, also snapped photos of the couple. They must be a global phenomenon at this point. 😃

I was going to go take a few photos of the Christ Church meadow. I snapped this in the charming garden, but never made it to the meadow because the college was open and I had to go inside and look around.

Inside the college walls.

A hallway.

Not the kind of fountain I've come to expect within historical sites like this. A reminder that, despite its age, Christ Church is a modern college.

A massive portrait gallery and dining room. Surely this had to be an inspiration for Hogwart's great hall. As you can see, the free admission attracted a lot of people. And the light was positioned wrong so I could not get a clear photo of the stained glass in the window.

A better view of the long tables.

The staircase outside the dining hall. We are in the cathedral building, according to the map.

The main quad within the college.

I took this photo to illustrate the big problem Oxford has with its historic buildings. See how the stones above the arches are in good condition, but the stones below are badly weathered and worn? That's an indication that the upper stones are newer than the lower ones. Oxford has very soft stone. All of its buildings and sculptures wear down to nothing over time. That's why so much of the city is under refurbishment so often. Like the Radcliffe Camera. If left alone, the stone will wear completely away. All of those gargoyles, grotesques, and heads I like so much are not the originals. Those are all gone. The emperor heads have been replaced twice. And the current designs of grotesques on the Bodleian were chosen in a contest by local school children.

Slowly making my way around the quad.

A sundial

Yet another quad. This was near the college's library. The Bodleian is the university library, but the colleges often house their own libraries, as well.

Outside the college, I was struck by this juxtaposition of old and new.

I liked this fellow's expression.

I popped into a Tesco Express near the bus stop before I headed back and was surprised to discover this taste of home on the end cap.

A neighbor cat I spotted when I was in the back garden. She's up on a second-floor window ledge.

And this concludes another day of Oxford exploring.