Christ Church College
The Oxford college with the scale, the history and the Harry Potter connection to hold anyone's attention.
The Oxford college with the scale, the history and the Harry Potter connection to hold anyone's attention.
When we want to give guests a proper Oxford day, this is where we point them first. Christ Church does not do things by halves. Tom Quad alone is larger than most colleges in their entirety, and the gatehouse tower (Tom Tower, designed by Wren) still tolls Great Tom, its seven-tonne bell, 101 times each evening at five past nine. The college chapel doubles as Oxford's cathedral, the smallest in England, with stained glass spanning six centuries. And then there is the Great Hall, a hammerbeam-roofed dining room that sat so deep in the popular imagination it became the model for the hall at Hogwarts. Children tend to recognise it on sight.
It is a working college and a cathedral rather than a museum, so a bit of planning pays off. Christ Church is a ticketed visitor attraction, and the busy stretches sell out, so we always tell guests to book a timed ticket online before they set off rather than turning up and hoping. Tickets are released weekly on the official site, and the multimedia guide is included with entry. Because the Hall and Cathedral are still used for meals, services and college events, parts of the site close to visitors at short notice, most often around exam season in May and June. A quick look at the college's known-closures page the night before saves a wasted trip.
A standard visit follows a set route with the multimedia guide, and it is more than enough for a morning. The highlights are worth knowing before you go so nobody walks straight past them.
Oxford is about thirty-five minutes from Well Cottage by car, an easy run down through the villages. The one thing to know is that you cannot really drive to the door, as central Oxford is largely closed to through traffic and parking near the college is scarce and pricey. We steer guests to one of the park-and-ride sites on the ring road, where you leave the car and take a short bus into the centre. It is calmer, cheaper, and drops you within a walk of the college. Give the whole outing a half day and you can easily fold in lunch or one of the museums.
Christ Church sits right in the heart of the old university quarter, so it pairs naturally with the rest of a day out. The Bodleian Library and the Ashmolean Museum are both a short stroll away, and the historic Bear Inn is around the corner for a pint afterwards. If you would rather spread things over more than one visit, our guide to Oxford pulls the whole city together, and the wider things to do page covers the rest of the area.
Here is the tip most visitors never hear. You do not need a sightseeing ticket to get inside the cathedral: most evenings in term you can slip in for Choral Evensong, and it is free. It is a service rather than a tour, three-quarters of an hour or so, sung by the cathedral choir, men alongside the boy choristers from Christ Church's own choir school. Sitting in that small, candle-warm cathedral while the trebles fill it with sound is one of the loveliest half-hours in Oxford, and increasingly a draw in its own right for visitors who first came for the Harry Potter connection. It usually starts at 6pm, but the seats in the choir stalls, close to the singers, are the ones you want, so aim to be there by about half past five. The one thing to get right is the calendar: the choir only sings during university term, so out of term you will find the service said rather than sung, and much of the magic goes with it. Check the cathedral's music list for the term dates and the evening's time before you build a trip around it.
“I've been going to evensong here since I was a boy, and it still does it for me. When the choristers are in, that little cathedral is pure magic. Walk out through Tom Gate afterwards, with the quad empty and the light low, and it's one of those places that stops you mid-sentence.”
All of this on the doorstep, and your own thatched cottage to come home to. Sleeps seven, less than a mile from Soho Farmhouse.