The ‘city of dreaming spires’
Each
year, thousands of visitors flock to Oxford to wander through peaceful,
winding lanes and famous colleges. But photographers are especially
spoilt for choice in this city in southeast England, where the beauty of
a historic university meets a picturesque county town. Growing up near
Oxford, I have spent years photographing – and falling in love with – my
home city. Some of those shots are shared here, where I have aimed to
capture the vantage points and centuries-old stories that few visitors
notice at first glance.
Late one afternoon, I took a sneaky look around All Souls College just before it shut its doors to visitors for the day. In the summer sun, with a blue sky above, Codrington Library in the north quadrangle became too tantalising not to photograph. The beautiful sundial (one of many around Oxford’s colleges) was a stunning centrepiece to this quiet inner sanctum. The entrance perfectly framed this very symmetrical shot, as a pair of ordinary hose reels standby, ready to water a flawless lawn. (Howard Timberlake)
Late one afternoon, I took a sneaky look around All Souls College just before it shut its doors to visitors for the day. In the summer sun, with a blue sky above, Codrington Library in the north quadrangle became too tantalising not to photograph. The beautiful sundial (one of many around Oxford’s colleges) was a stunning centrepiece to this quiet inner sanctum. The entrance perfectly framed this very symmetrical shot, as a pair of ordinary hose reels standby, ready to water a flawless lawn. (Howard Timberlake)
Messing about on the river
The
rivers Thames and Cherwell both flow through the city, making floating
one of the best ways to see Oxford. Hire a row boat, punt or pedalo at
Magdalene Bridge and take a relaxing trip along the water. Pictured
here, a mass of row boats await interested customers. Despite the boats
resting in a beautiful location, I decided on the close-up shot as it is
full of colour and conveys a relaxed pace of life often associated with
drifting along in a row boat on a summer’s day. (Howard Timberlake)
Camera on camera
The
Radcliffe Camera (Camera means “room” in Latin) stands proudly between
the colleges of All Souls and Brasenose. It can be hard to squeeze a
building of such great beauty into one shot, and I found that the best
place to photograph it is from the tower of St Mary the Virgin church
next door. The Radcliffe Camera was built between 1737 and 1749 and
currently acts as a reading room for the nearby Bodleian Library. (Howard Timberlake)