Regal, well-to-do Oxford and its English garden of a county, Oxfordshire, sit amidst the rolling fields of the south, just fifty miles from the urban sprawl of London, rising from the affluent straits of the Home Counties in a patchwork of neo-classical grandeur and stiff-upper-lip institutions. It’s a place where time seems to have stood still since the middle ages, where studious polymaths wander between gothic cloisters and the looming domes of cathedral after church after chapel after college stand watch, stoically over the ancient cobbled streets.
Of course, the town is primarily known for its university. Consistently rated amongst the best in the world, it’s still far from the museum piece that the heady crowds that gather in front its gates and frontispieces make it seem. Yes, those dimly lit rooms that lurk behind the mysterious Victorian windows of Exeter College and grand Christ Church are still filled with bookworm students and monocle-wearing professors.
Naturally Oxford’s erudite locals make the town something of a cultural hotspot too, and interested visitors should be sure to ask their Oxford tour guide for tips on the sprawling University Museum of Natural History, or the aged and prestigious Ashmolean.