City of Dreaming Spires
University of Oxford
Oxford has no single campus: its colleges and university buildings are woven through the medieval city centre, so the Radcliffe Camera, the Sheldonian and the Divinity School all sit within a few minutes' walk of each other.
- 8Buildings
- 3Traditions
- 1483Oldest · Divinity School
- 1914Newest · Bridge of Sighs
Campus map and Look Around
Tap a numbered pin to see that building from the street with Apple Look Around.
Planning the visit
- Fly intoLondon Heathrow Airport (LHR)
Heathrow is the usual gateway for international visitors to Oxford. Direct coaches run from the airport to Oxford's city centre in roughly an hour and a half.
- Getting aroundWalking / Bus / Bike
The historic centre is compact and best explored on foot. Bicycles are everywhere, and city buses connect the centre with the railway station and outlying colleges.
- Colors and teams
Oxford has its own vocabulary: terms are called Michaelmas, Hilary and Trinity, and the Radcliffe Camera is simply the 'Rad Cam'.
8 buildings to stamp
-
Photo: Diliff, CC BY 2.5, via Wikimedia Commons Radcliffe Camera
Radcliffe Square, Oxford OX1 3BG
James Gibbs's great domed rotunda stands alone in the middle of Radcliffe Square, which is why it has become the symbol of Oxford itself. Built to house a library funded by the physician John Radcliffe, it is now a reading room of the Bodleian.
- Built
- 1748
- Architect
- James Gibbs
- Style
- Baroque
- Today
- Bodleian Library reading room
-
Photo: The New Athens, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons Sheldonian Theatre
Broad Street, Oxford OX1 3AZ
Christopher Wren based his design on the open-air Theatre of Marcellus in Rome, then solved the problem of a 70-foot roof span with an ingenious timber truss. Inside, a painted ceiling shows Truth descending on the Arts and Sciences.
- Built
- 1669
- Architect
- Christopher Wren
- Style
- English Baroque
- Today
- Ceremonies, concerts and lectures
-
Photo: Diliff, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons Divinity School
Broad Street, Oxford OX1 3BG
Begun in 1427, this is the oldest surviving building made for university use. Its stone ceiling is a showpiece of Perpendicular Gothic, an intricate lierne vault studded with 455 carved bosses.
- Built
- 1483
- Architect
- William Orchard (vault)
- Style
- Perpendicular Gothic
- Today
- Part of the Bodleian Library
-
Photo: Dmitry Djouce, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons Tom Tower
St Aldate's, Oxford OX1 1DP
Wren completed Cardinal Wolsey's unfinished gatehouse at Christ Church in 1681–82, choosing a Gothic style to match the founder's work at a time when nobody was building Gothic. Its ogee dome houses Great Tom, the six-ton bell that gives the tower its name.
- Built
- 1682
- Architect
- Christopher Wren
- Style
- Gothic
- Today
- Christ Church gate tower and belfry
-
Photo: Diliff, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons Clarendon Building
Broad Street, Oxford OX1 3BG
Nicholas Hawksmoor's temple-fronted building on Broad Street was finished in 1715 next to the Sheldonian and the Bodleian. Its grand portico and rooftop statues make it one of the most monumental pieces of the university's ceremonial heart.
- Built
- 1715
- Architect
- Nicholas Hawksmoor
- Style
- Neoclassical
- Today
- Bodleian Libraries offices
-
Photo: David Hallam-Jones, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons Bridge of Sighs
New College Lane, Oxford OX1 3BW
Officially Hertford Bridge, this enclosed skyway links the Old and New Quadrangles of Hertford College over New College Lane. Designed by Sir Thomas Jackson and finished in 1914, it is nicknamed for its supposed likeness to the bridge in Venice.
- Built
- 1914
- Architect
- Thomas Graham Jackson
- Style
- Covered skyway
- Today
- College skyway
-
Photo: Ethan Doyle White, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons Oxford University Museum of Natural History
Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3PW
A neo-Gothic cathedral of science, shaped by the ideas of John Ruskin. A glass roof on cast-iron columns covers the central court, and each stone column in the arcades is cut from a different British rock.
- Built
- 1860
- Architect
- Thomas Newenham Deane and Benjamin Woodward
- Style
- Neo-Gothic
- Today
- Natural history museum
-
Photo: The original uploader was Gagravarr at English Wikipedia.., CC BY-SA 2.5, via Wikimedia Commons Magdalen Tower
High Street, Oxford OX1 4AU
The bell tower of Magdalen College rises 44 metres over the High Street and the River Cherwell. It is the central focus of Oxford's May Morning celebrations each spring.
- Built
- 1509
- Style
- Gothic
- Height
- 44 m (144 ft)
- Stories
- 4
- Today
- College bell tower
.jpg){kind=link}
_geograph-3610290-by-David-Hallam-Jones.jpg){kind=link}
3 traditions to check off
Stamped! keeps these as a checklist, so you can tick each one off on the visit.
Great Tom's 101 Strokes
Every night at 9:05pm (9pm old 'Oxford time') the Great Tom bell in Christ Church's Tom Tower rings 101 times, once for each of the college's original 100 scholars plus one added in 1663. Stand on St Aldate's to hear it.
May Morning at Magdalen Tower
At 6am on 1 May the Magdalen College Choir sings the Hymnus Eucharisticus from the top of the Great Tower, a ceremony going back about 500 years. Crowds gather on the High Street and Magdalen Bridge below to listen.
Bridge of Sighs
Hertford Bridge, nicknamed the Bridge of Sighs after the Venice bridge it is said to resemble, links two parts of Hertford College over New College Lane. Stop on the lane to see and photograph this city landmark.
Know University of Oxford well?
Students and alumni know the traditions best. Suggest one we're missing, a building worth a stamp, or a fix. Every suggestion is checked against a source before it goes into the app.
More schools around the world
- Aalto University
- Durham University
- King's College London
- KU Leuven
- McGill University
- National Autonomous University of Mexico
- Trinity College Dublin
- University College London
- University of British Columbia
- University of Cambridge
- University of Edinburgh
- University of Glasgow
- University of Melbourne
- University of Padua
- University of Paris (Sorbonne)
- University of St Andrews
- University of Sydney
- University of Toronto
- Uppsala University
Stamp all 8 on your visit.
Tour University of Oxford in 3D before you go, add it to a college road trip and earn a passport stamp at every building. Free on iPhone and iPad.
Download on theApp Store