The Great Hall at Christ Church Oxford was the location inspiration for the “sorting hat” scence from Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone. Alas, a film set constructed elsewhere recreating the interior of the Great Hall was used for the actual movie but the grandour of the Great Hall was none the less impressive. You can almost see Harry, Ron and Hermione anxiously waiting for their names to be processed by the sorting hat.
The Divinity School at The Bodelian Library was used in several Harry Potter movie scenes also. It is most obvious as the Infirmary at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry where Harry, Ron and Hermione had various reasons to be patients and / or visitors.
Adjacent to the Bodleian Library is the Radcliffe Camera. This is a working library of the University with two upper circular floors for students, an administration ground floor and two subterranean levels stretching for hundreds of metres to the adjacent Bodleian Library and beyond.
With only several weeks till exams, all the libraries we were able to visit were strictly “no cameras”, “no speaking”, “absolute silence” with every seat filled with a nervous student hopefully cramming for their finals.
We finished the afternoon with a visit to Magdelan College and were able to wander with some freedom among the buildings and manicured lawns. We enjoyed tea along the banks of the River Cherwell before strolling along Addison’s Walk around The Water Meadow. C.S. Lewis (of “The Chronicles of Narnia”) held academic positions at both Magdelan College, Oxford and Magdelane College, Cambridge. There was a poem of his inscribed along Addison’s Walk. Something about birds – but all I could see were bloody squirrels – everywhere, oh, and a herd of deer, but they don’t count. Sorry Lewis!
On the way back home, we cross the River Thames. Today’s weather was a wonderful contrast to yesterday’s, with much sun and blue skies. I understand this is not common for Oxford so we are thankful to the Good Lord above for blessing our day today and pray he continues his favourable outlook on us tomorrow…
… for tomorrow we set off on a Midsomer Murders adventure tour. Should this turn out to be my last post, because I am murdered tomorrow, I have been reliably informed by a retired policeman (CID) I met in Cambridge, that you should “follow the money”. In the meatime, my will still stands.
Wah…. Great pics. Interior design was great back then, but image the cleaning!
Hope the weather stays good. Too much rain dampens the spirit and you just don’t want to get out and about.
You should love the wee villages on your travels in this area. Too cute! You can just imagine the horses and carts plodding along, making the tracks that are now the roads.
Enjoy. Enjoy ??
Yay for better weather! We are having the grey and cloudy skies now. I am hopeful to get at least one load of laundry dry on the line today before it rains.
I am soooooo excited for the Midsomer Murders adventure post!! 😀 😀 😀
Be safe and take a load of photos!
Love Danrie
Wow the hall is beautiful! When we were there we were supposed to see it but it was being used at that particular time, so we missed out. Thanks for the photo. We have continued going to trivia. Mum dad decs and I went last night but didn’t get a place. We have also continued the Tuesday night tradition and it’s Luke and danries turn next. Decs is exhausted after coming back from a play at evitas house. Recently he has been checking everyone’s temperature and declaring their temperature as ” 2 minutes”. I’m not sure if we are all quite done yet. Thanks for tge updates!