A Day in Oxford

Paddington in London is my favorite train station in the world. I don’t really know why but suspect nostalgia has sometime to do with it. It’s the one I’ve used most over the years and, though details change, it always seems pretty much the same. I guess I just find it comfortable. And it’s always the first stop on my way to Oxford.

It’s a straight 12 minute walk from Oxford Station, across a bridge, past  Gloucester Green Coach Station on George Street, which changes to Broad Street where it intersects with Cornmarket & Magdalen, to The Buttery Hotel where I’ve been staying every visit for some time now. It’s cafe serves those tables you see set up in the street on Broad.

There’s a cozy single room I usually occupy with a view I like over the rooftops in the back. This time the room smelt a bit strange and they moved me immediately into a great big top-floor double overlooking Broad and Balliol College across the road. It could not have been better and it’s this kind of care that keeps me returning to The Buttery.

I left the hotel in the afternoon to wander. It’s what I do in Oxford. Occasionally I do something particular, like a tour of the Bodleian Library, tea in the little cafe with a view of the Radcliffe Camera, or a stroll around the University of Oxford Botanic Garden. I’ve stayed a couple of times with friends who have favorite places they like to take guests and that can be great, too. One visit my hostess took me around colleges that were closed to the public, but she knew the porters, the gate-keepers, at several and took me through. But when my visit is just an overnight on my way to someplace else, as this one was, I just walk and stop in at familiar places, like Blackwell’s Bookshop across the road and, without fail, to Evensong at Christ Church Cathedral, for me the best of all things.

Above, the Bodleian Library.  Below, the Radcliffe Camera.

Above, Hertford Bridge, New College Lane.  Below, the Oxford Covered Market.

Below, Christ Church Cathedral from Broad Walk.

There are evensong services at others of Oxford University’s college churches and, while I make note of them, somehow cannot break away from Christ Church. This time was no exception and, as always, I sat in the choir in close proximity to the boys and men of the choir. I’m always amazed that the place isn’t full, but it never has been when I’ve been there, always a place for me in those beautifully carved and uncomfortable choir stalls. I’d be sad if I were to be relegated to a folding chair, as I was once at Westminster Abbey. Shame on me for complaining.

I cannot describe the feeling I get when listening to a choir with boy voices. There is simply nothing like it and it can bring this most practical of women to tears. If you’ve heard it, you know what I mean. If you haven’t, you must some time. It may not effect you in the same way but it’s worth a try.

Next stop, after evensong in Christ Church Cathedral, Wagamama. It’s a chain of Japanese restaurants in the UK and the Oxford location was my first. I’ve since been to others but this one is my favorite, right between the church and my hotel. As I left Christ Church, an obviously popular food truck had set up just outside the entrance during the service, but Wagamama was waiting.

Buskers on Cornmarket

In the morning, after breakfast in The Buttery Cafe, I packed and had an hour before I needed to be on my way. I exited the hotel turning right, crossed the road and passed Blackwell’s Books, walked to the end of Broad St. and turned left instead of my usual right, onto Parks Road to find something new. After 100 yards I stopped to look into the quadrangle of a college I’d never heard of, Wadham College, with a prominent “closed” sign in front of me. I was approached by a man who clearly belonged there and he invited me in. He identified himself as a professor emeritus and gave me a brief tour. Into the quad, a left turn and through the building brought us into a beautiful garden, hidden from the street by a wall, as so much is in Oxford.

I’ve since learned that Wadham College was founded by Dorothy Wadham in 1610. Among those educated there were 17th century philosopher John Locke, the “Father of Liberalism”, and maybe the world’s most famous architect, Sir Christopher Wren, designer of St. Paul’s Cathedral in London.

I returned to The Buttery to retrieve my things and walked toward the train station on my way to the Avis office where I’d pick up my “hire car”. Rather than take the streets I knew, I turned onto a narrow residential road which the map told me would get me to my destination. I passed Oxford Castle, had never known there was one, crossed Quaking Bridge over Castle Mill Stream, with a lovely pedestrian lane fronting charming residences and arrived at Osney Lane.
I picked up my car and headed out for a week in the Cotswolds, for more friends and adventures, more stately homes, historic houses and gardens, some for the second time and others I hadn’t yet had time to visit. Heaven.

Next week, another chapter in the William Morris story,
a visit to Kelmscott Manor

Find all episodes of  ‘PortMoresby in England’  here.