Broad Street. 옥스포드(Oxford)

Broad Street. 옥스포드(Oxford). 영국(England)

Broad Street

You are standing just outside the lost northern city wall of medieval Oxford. Immediately in front is Broad Street which is lined with colleges and mainly 18th century houses, now converted to shops such as Blackwell's, the University bookshop. To your left is the Clarendon Building and through the central arch is the School Quadrangle of the Bodleian Library.

 

Further on to your left are the Sheldonian Theatre (1664-9) and the Old Ashmolean (1679-83: now the Museum of the History of Science). Opposite is the New Bodleian Library designed by Giles Gilbert Scott in 1937-40. The building is undergoing major restoration works, to be reopened as the Weston Library in c. 2015. Behind you is the former Indian Institute - note the elephant on the weathervane above the corner cupola.

An engraving showing the Clarendon Building, the Sheldonian Theatre and the Old Ashmolean from Broad Street.

 

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The Sheldonian - a degree of ceremony

The Sheldonian Theatre was designed by Sir Christopher Wren as a ceremonial hall in which degree ceremonies, such as matriculation and graduation, could take place - as they do to this day. Several times a year students wearing full academic dress (gown, hood and subfusc) process through the centre of Oxford to the Sheldonian to receive their degrees. The theatre is also used for lectures, conferences and musical recitals; Handel first performed his third oratorio Athlia here in 1733.

The building is modelled on the Roman Theatre of Marcellus and the interior features superb carved woodwork by Richard Cleer and an allegorical painted ceiling, by King Charles II's court painter, Robert Streater. The theatre - including the cupola which affords superb views of the spires of Oxford - is sometimes open to visitors for a small fee. The Broad Street side of the Sheldonian is guarded by anonymous bearded figures on stone plinths known locally, but wrongly, as the 'Emperors' Head'. These were installed in 1972 as copies of earlier stone 'herms' that had guarded the entrance to the theatre since it was built in 1664-68.

 

An illustration showing the interior of the Sheldonian Theatre packed with people.

 

A print by David Loggan showing different types of academic dress.

 

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The Clarendon Building - a fanfare in stone

This was built to serve a dual purpose: a printing-house for the Oxford University Press and a ceremonial entrance to the central group of University building: the Bodleian Library, the Old Schools and the Sheldonian Theatre.

 

The architect, Nicholas Hawksmoor, was Wren's pupil and darughtsman and, like Wren, was deeply absorbed in the architecture of ancient Rome. The giant Doric portico is approached up a flight of steps.

 

On the roofline are figures representing the Muses (by James Thornhill: some of the originals have been replaced), and in the niche on the west side is a statue of the Charles II's minister the Earl of Clarendon, whose best-selling History of the Great Rebellion provided some of the funding for the building. It ceased to be a printing house when Oxford University Press moved to Walton Street in 1830 and now houses offices for the Bodleian Library.

 

The honorands of the 1975 Encaenia ceremony in procession outside the Clarendon Building.

 

A place of martyrdom

At the far end of Broad Streets, three bishops were burnt at the stake in 1555-56. Bishops Cranmer, Latimer and Ridley had refused to renounce their Protestant faith when Queen Mary attempted to turn the country back to Catholicism. There is a momorial to them on St. Giles' Street.

 

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Damaged or Stolen

The Bodleian Library is one of the oldest in the world. The first books were so valuable that they were chained to the shelves. Fire was a constant danger. Readers joining the Bodleian today must still promise aloud:

 

'... not to remove from the Library, nor to mark, deface, or injure in any way, any volume... not to bring into the Library, or kindle therein, any fire or flame...'

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