Do you need some magic inspiration? Explore Oxford.
You’re probably familiar with Oxford, the world-famous university founded nearly a thousand years ago in 1096. And it has the status of being one of the highest ranking universities in the world.
Lofty education creates magic.
Oxford may hold the honor of being the most magical place on the planet. Let’s journey around the campus and discover why this stellar honor is bestowed this grand hall of ivy.
The magical elements of Oxford.
Castles
As we jaunt around the campus grounds, we encounter cobblestone walkways enveloped by a gray sky and lined with centuries-old architecture including stonewalled castles.
Cottages and pubs
As we stroll past the city’s buildings and pause at a few pubs we begin to experience a cottage like feeling that conjures up the image of a quaint storybook town.
The Harry Potter Connection
The Harry Potter movies were filmed on locations across several college campuses within the University of Oxford.
Wander around the campus and we find these locations:
In New College, one of the Cloisters served as a first-floor hallway in Hogwarts. Right outside the corridor, you can see the tree under which Professor Moody turned Malfoy into a ferret!
Great Hall after the dining hall in Christ Church College is reportedly J.K. Rowling’s model for many scenes.
Oxford’s Divinity School is the Goblet of Fire scene.
A Portal to Narnia
C.S. Lewis, the author of The Chronicles of Narnia series, attended Magdalen College at the University of Oxford. He apparently happened across the door every day. It became the ‘Narnia Door’ on Cattell Street. More magical since the lion head on the door served as the inspiration for Aslan, and the gold-painted fawns on both sides of its frame similarly gave rise to the creation of Mr. Tumnus.
The Real Wonderland story
Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, better known as Lewis Carroll, authored Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland when he was a student at Christ Church College. He met the Liddell family as soon as they moved to Oxford. In his interactions with them, Carroll gradually found himself fascinated with their fourth youngest child, Alice Liddell, who became the muse for his most famous work. The story goes: Alice asked him to tell her a story while he was on a boat ride with her and her family, and afterward, she delightedly told him to write his stories down. The rest, as they say, is history.
Find the real magic as you walk by The Alice Door, which is tucked away in a part of college that most people never get to see, in the north wall of the Cathedral Garden, and leads between this garden and that of the Deanery, just next door.
Do you want to know more about Oxford?
Discover and visit Oxford.
