The City of Dreaming Spires — one of the world's oldest universities, the Bodleian Library, Christ Church's Great Hall (the original Hogwarts), and a pub culture Shakespeare himself patronised
Oxford is one of the world's great university cities — home to the University of Oxford, the oldest English-speaking university in the world, whose 38 colleges produce a cityscape of medieval halls, Gothic chapels, and baroque domes that inspired both Lewis Carroll's Wonderland and C.S. Lewis's Narnia. The Bodleian Library (1602) holds over 13 million volumes including a Gutenberg Bible and a Shakespeare First Folio; the Radcliffe Camera (1749), a circular neoclassical library, is the most photographed building in Oxford. Christ Church's Great Hall was used as the inspiration for Hogwarts' di…
The University of Oxford traces its origins to 1096 — the first documented teaching occurred that year, and the university grew rapidly after Henry II banned English students from attending the University of Paris in 1167. The medieval town and university were frequently in violent conflict: the St Scholastica Day riot of 1355 killed 63 scholars and left the townspeople paying an annual penance to the university for five centuries. Roger Bacon conducted early scientific experiments here in the 13th century; the Protestant Reformation's Oxford Martyrs (Cranmer, Latimer, Ridley) were burned at…