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Museums and galleries[edit]
See also: Category:Museums of the University of Oxford
Oxford is home to many museums, galleries, and collections, most of which are free of admission charges and are major tourist attractions. The majority are departments of the University of Oxford. The first of these to be established was the Ashmolean Museum, the world's first university museum, and the oldest museum in the UK. Its first building was erected in 1678–1683 to house a cabinet of curiosities given to the University of Oxford in 1677. The museum reopened in 2009 after a major redevelopment. It holds significant collections of art and archaeology, including works by Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, Turner, and Picasso, as well as treasures such as the Scorpion Macehead, the Parian Marble and the Alfred Jewel. It also contains "The Messiah", a pristine Stradivarius violin, regarded by some as one of the finest examples in existence.
The University Museum of Natural History holds the university's zoological, entomological and geological specimens. It is housed in a large neo-Gothic building on Parks Road, in the university's Science Area. Among its collection are the skeletons of a Tyrannosaurus rex and Triceratops, and the most complete remains of a dodo found anywhere in the world. It also hosts the Simonyi Professorship of the Public Understanding of Science, currently held by Marcus du Sautoy. Adjoining the Museum of Natural History is the Pitt Rivers Museum, founded in 1884, which displays the university's archaeological and anthropological collections, currently holding over 500,000 items. It recently built a new research annexe; its staff have been involved with the teaching of anthropology at Oxford since its foundation, when as part of his donation General Augustus Pitt Rivers stipulated that the university establish a lectureship in anthropology.
The Museum of the History of Science is housed on Broad Street in the world's oldest-surviving purpose-built museum building. It contains 15,000 artefacts, from antiquity to the 20th century, representing almost all aspects of the history of science. In the university's Faculty of Music on St Aldate's is the Bate Collection of Musical Instruments, a collection mostly of instruments from Western classical music, from the medieval period onwards. Christ Church Picture Gallery holds a collection of over 200 old master paintings. The university also has an archive at the Oxford University Press Museum. Other museums and galleries in Oxford include Modern Art Oxford, the Museum of Oxford, the Oxford Castle, Science Oxford and The Story Museum.
Art[edit]
Art galleries in Oxford include the Ashmolean Museum, the Christ Church Picture Gallery, and Modern Art Oxford. William Turner (aka "Turner of Oxford", 1789–1862), was a watercolourist who painted landscapes in the Oxford area. The Oxford Art Society was established in 1891. The later watercolourist and draughtsman Ken Messer (1931–2018) has been dubbed "The Oxford Artist" by some, with his architectural paintings around the city. In 2018, The Oxford Art Book featured many contemporary local artists and their depictions of Oxford scenes. The annual Oxfordshire Artweeks is well-represented by artists in Oxford itself.
Music[edit]
Holywell Music Room is said to be the oldest purpose-built music room in Europe, and hence Britain's first concert hall. Tradition has it that George Frideric Handel performed there, though there is little evidence. Joseph Haydn was awarded an honorary doctorate by Oxford University in 1791, an event commemorated by three concerts of his music at the Sheldonian Theatre, directed by the composer and from which his Symphony No. 92 earned the nickname of the "Oxford" Symphony. Victorian composer Sir John Stainer was organist at Magdalen College and later Professor of Music at the university, and is buried in Holywell Cemetery.
Oxford, and its surrounding towns and villages, have produced many successful bands and musicians in the field of popular music. The most notable Oxford act is Radiohead, who all met at nearby Abingdon School, though other well known local bands include Supergrass, Ride, Mr Big, Swervedriver, Lab 4, Talulah Gosh, the Candyskins, Medal, the Egg, Unbelievable Truth, Hurricane No. 1, Crackout, Goldrush and more recently, South Arcade, Young Knives, Foals, Glass Animals, Dive Dive and Stornoway. These and many other bands from over 30 years of the Oxford music scene's history feature in the documentary film Anyone Can Play Guitar?. In 1997, Oxford played host to Radio 1's Sound City, with acts such as Travis, Bentley Rhythm Ace, Embrace, Spiritualized and DJ Shadow playing in various venues around the city including Oxford Brookes University. It is also home to several brass bands, notably the City of Oxford Silver Band, founded in 1887.
Theatres and cinemas[edit]
Burton Taylor Studio, Gloucester Street
Curzon Cinema, Westgate, Bonn Square
Michael Pilch Studio, Jowett Walk
New Theatre, George Street
North Wall Arts Centre, South Parade
Odeon Cinema, George Street
Odeon Cinema, Magdalen Street
Old Fire Station Theatre, George Street
O'Reilly Theatre, Blackhall Road
Oxford Playhouse, Beaumont Street
Pegasus Theatre, Magdalen Road
Phoenix Picturehouse, Walton Street
Ultimate Picture Palace, Cowley Road
Vue Cinema, Grenoble Road
Theatre company
Creation Theatre Company
Literature and film[edit]
Main articles: Literature in Oxford, List of films shot in Oxford, and List of fictional Oxford colleges
The city hosts the annual Oxford Literary Festival each Spring. Well-known Oxford-based authors include:
Brian Aldiss (1925–2017), science fiction novelist, lived in Oxford.
Vera Brittain (1893–1970), undergraduate at Somerville.
John Buchan, 1st Baron Tweedsmuir (1875–1940), attended Brasenose College, best known for The Thirty-nine Steps.
A.S. Byatt (born 1936), Booker Prize winner, undergraduate at Somerville.
Lewis Carroll (real name Charles Lutwidge Dodgson), (1832–1898), author of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, was a student and Mathematical Lecturer of Christ Church.
Susan Cooper (born 1935), undergraduate at Somerville, best known for her The Dark Is Rising sequence.
Sir William Davenant (1606–1668), poet and playwright.
Colin Dexter (1930–2017), wrote and set his Inspector Morse detective novels in Oxford.
John Donaldson (c. 1921–1989), a poet resident in Oxford in later life.
Siobhan Dowd (1960–2007), Oxford resident, undergraduate at Lady Margaret Hall.
Victoria Glendinning (born 1937), undergraduate at Somerville.
Kenneth Grahame (1859–1932), educated at St Edward's School, wrote The Wind in the Willows.
Michael Innes (J. I. M. Stewart) (1906–1994), Scottish novelist and academic, Student of Christ Church
P. D. James (1920–2014), born and died in Oxford; wrote about Adam Dalgliesh
C. S. Lewis (1898–1963), student at University College and Fellow of Magdalen.
T. E. Lawrence (1888–1935), "Lawrence of Arabia", Oxford resident, undergraduate at Jesus, postgraduate at Magdalen.
Iris Murdoch (1919–1999), undergraduate at Somerville and fellow of St Anne's.
Carola Oman (1897–1978), novelist and biographer, born and brought up in the city.
Iain Pears (born 1955), undergraduate at Wadham and Oxford resident, wrote An Instance of the Fingerpost.
Philip Pullman (born 1946), undergraduate at Exeter, teacher and resident in the city.
Dorothy L. Sayers (1893–1957), undergraduate at Somerville, wrote about Lord Peter Wimsey.
J. R. R. Tolkien (1892–1973), undergraduate at Exeter and later professor of English at Merton, author of The Lord of the Rings
John Wain (1925–1994), undergraduate at St John's and later Professor of Poetry at Oxford University 1973–78.
Oscar Wilde (1854–1900), 19th-century poet and author who attended Oxford from 1874 to 1878.
Athol Williams (born 1970), South African poet, postgraduate at Hertford and Regent's Park from 2015 to 2020.
Charles Williams (1886–1945), editor at Oxford University Press.
Oxford appears in the following works:[citation needed]
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"Dreaming spires" of Oxford University viewed from South Park in the snow
the poems "The Scholar Gipsy" and "Thyrsis" by Matthew Arnold. "Thyrsis" includes the lines: "And that sweet city with her dreaming spires, She needs not June for beauty's heightening,..."
The Scarlet Pimpernel
Harry Potter (all the films to date)
The Chronicles of the Imaginarium Geographica by James A. Owen
Jude the Obscure (1895) by Thomas Hardy (in which Oxford is thinly disguised as "Christminster")
Zuleika Dobson (1911) by Max Beerbohm
Gaudy Night (1935) by Dorothy L. Sayers
Brideshead Revisited (1945) by Evelyn Waugh
A Question of Upbringing (1951) by Anthony Powell
Alice in Wonderland (1951) by Walt Disney
Second Generation (1964) by Raymond Williams
Young Sherlock Holmes (1985) by Steven Spielberg
Inspector Morse (1987–2000)
Where the Rivers Meet (1988) trilogy set in Oxford by John Wain
All Souls (1989) by Javier Marías
The Children of Men (1992) by P. D. James
Doomsday Book (1992) by Connie Willis
His Dark Materials trilogy (1995 onwards) by Philip Pullman
Tomorrow Never Dies (1997)
The Saint (1997)
102 Dalmatians (2000)
Endymion Spring (2006) by Matthew Skelton
Lewis (2006–15)
The Oxford Murders (2008)
Mr. Nice (1996), autobiography of Howard Marks, subsequently a 2010 film
A Discovery of Witches (2011) by Deborah Harkness
X-Men: First Class (2011)
Endeavour (2012 onwards)
The Reluctant Cannibals (2013) by Ian Flitcroft
Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again (2018)
The Late Scholar by Jill Paton Walsh, part of the continuation of the Lord Peter Wimsey books of Dorothy L. Sayers
Wonka (2023)
