Fiction on Location: Oxford, Oxford University

I thought I would do a grouping of blog posts about places I have traveled that have reminded me of fictional works or have been an inspiration to works and adaptations. A few weeks ago I went to Oxford for the first time and I actually enjoyed myself a great deal. Oxford is an enchanting, little busy town which a lovely collaboration of old and new buildings. There are the new shops of city centers and high street stores mixed in with the buildings of Oxford University Colleges and from the past. They don’t allow non university attendants to enter the majority of the colleges; but they do allow members of the public to come into Christ Church College, which is the most famous and largest college at the University. It is the one that I got to visit while on my day trip to Oxford.

               This university is the place where many famous people have come to gain a better education but we don’t care about them; this university is the inspiration of Lewis Carroll’s classic The Adventure’s of Alice in Wonderland. The book is about a young girl named Alice and her adventures in th very strange world known as Wonderland; where she meets interesting characters like the White Rabbit, the Mad Hatter, and the Red Queen aka the Queen of Hearts.  Lewis did say he got the inspiration for the novel from his years at Christ Church and while being there you can see the inspiration around you; you just have to look closely. It was believed that the head master’s daughter was named Alice, the headmaster himself was reflected as the white rabbit and the stairwell leading to his quarters was the rabbit’s hole. Do not quote me on this information; this is what my tour guide told me lol. Here are some pictures of the college:

(Please be aware I am not a photographer lol, it’s not one of my greatest hobbies but I will work on it!)

You may also recognize a few things about the university, some places you have seen before. This is also a place where they filmed scenes for the Harry Potter movies. The old university staircase was the same stairwell found in Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone when Harry first enters the school to enter the dining room. I found this very exciting because I love the Harry Potter books and movies; some of the adaptations may not follow the book page by page but they are fairly close. So Oxford was the ideal location for some of the scenes with the old buildings of the University to help give that old feeling of Hogwarts. I did enjoy my trip to Oxford and learning about the literary heritage that comes with it; also the lovely realization of a book adaptation took part there as well.

Have you been to places that have been inspired by books or have been places for book adaptations?