Oxford: Bodleian Library & Harry Potter

We arrived by train a bit late for our walking tour of Oxford. So, our guide, Sergiy, who is from Ukraine, but has spent the last several decades in Oxford, quickly walked us to the city center to get us started. Once we arrived in the heart of Oxford, he gave us some background on the history of the town. Interestingly, the site began around 900 AD as an Anglo-Saxon river crossing for oxen, which led to a flourishing marketplace that became known as Oxenford (meaning "ford of the oxen" in Old English), which was eventually shortened to Oxford.

Rare English Longhorn cattle at Christ Church College & Meadow

The University of Oxford was established in the 13th century when King Henry the II banned students from studying in Paris. Fascinatingly, Sergiy informed us that the local townspeople did not get along with the snooty academic boys who invaded their town. He said the relationship was referred to as "Town & Gown," the latter referring to the robes the academics wore. Conflicts between the the two groups were commonplace throughout the centuries and sometimes led to violence with a number of students killed in 1355. Fortunately, those conflicts are now a thing of the past.

The History of Science Museum that displays Einstein's writing on a blackboard from a 1931 lecture

Following our walking tour with Sergiy, we met, Molly, our guide to University of Oxford's Bodleian Library. The library is the largest academic library in the world with around 14 million items and is the second largest library in Britain, after the British Library. There are 27 libraries within the Bodleian Libraries system. Molly explained to us how in the early days of the library when books were so expensive, they were chained to the shelves for safekeeping and she showed us an example on one of the shelves.

Duke Humfrey's Library

A highlight of the Bodleian Library tour was seeing a few of the Harry Potter filming spots. In the Duke Humfrey's Library, Molly showed us where the "Restricted Section" was located for the first Harry Potter movie (below-left), though the current set of books had been removed for filming. She also took us through the Divinity School where we were permitted to sit on the benches (below-right). The Divinity School was used as the infirmary for several of the Harry Potter films and was the location of the dance lessons for the Yule Ball.

After a leisurely & delicious lunch at Sassi Thai located in the Oxford Covered Market, several of us visited Blackwell's Bookstore, which is enormous and has an amazing reading room in the lower level. Following our lunch break we met at Christ Church College, the University of Oxford currently has 43 separate colleges. Here, we went on a self-guided audio tour and honestly, I felt like this was definitely the Harry Potter filming tour as several scenes were shot here and it is said that J.K. Rowling took inspiration for Hogwart's Great Hall from Christ Church College's Dining Hall. Some of the film locations or inspirations can be viewed below from left to right: the quad with very dry grass, the dining hall, and the cloisters. I tried to get some shots of the famous stairwell from the first film, but the TikTok influencers were hogging them.

For more Information:

Bodleian Libraries

University of Oxford

Oxford