the limitation on building height is a bit crazy -- the tallest building in Oxford is the spire of the University Church of St Mary the Virgin at 55 metres, completed 1641! Next up are the two residential tower blocks in Blackbird Leys, both at 48 metres, completed 1962. If it was OK to build tall buildings in the seventeenth and twentieth centuries, then why not today? It's a nonsense.
― Grandpont Genie, Tuesday, 20 December 2016 14:27 (seven years ago) link
There's always the traditional plan of just bunging another 20,000 houses in Bicester and hoping for the best, of course.
- I imagine that within two decades Oxford will just meet Bicester except perhaps broken by the Oxford-Cambridge road link (I haven't been able to work out the imagined/proposed route for this).
― djh, Tuesday, 20 December 2016 20:35 (seven years ago) link
Bicester is currently nipping at Chesterton's ankles, so I can see that.
(on my annual visit home and seeing what's changed)
― carson dial, Tuesday, 20 December 2016 21:20 (seven years ago) link
Any suggestions for good things to do in Oxfordshire on ... well, tomorrow?
That's a vague question, I know.
― djh, Saturday, 3 February 2018 21:42 (six years ago) link
Or any weekend, for that matter?
― djh, Wednesday, 7 February 2018 19:24 (six years ago) link
I occasionally swim in the Thames in Oxford, at the midpoint(ish) between the Trout and the Perch pubs, from the opposite bank to Port Meadow. Are there nicer bits? I'm wondering if there's anywhere slightly north of the Trout??
― djh, Tuesday, 24 July 2018 22:46 (six years ago) link
No help here, though we did swim a very short walk north of the perch last summer. As children we used to swim virtually right in the middle of town, by the old railway bridge south of the ice rink - can't imagine anyone doing that now.
― home, home and deranged (ledge), Wednesday, 25 July 2018 08:32 (six years ago) link
i swam in the river at the bottom of port meadow on the way to the perch. also probably not a good idea in 2018.
― π ππ’π¨ (caek), Wednesday, 25 July 2018 15:36 (six years ago) link
Ta.
Why so, Caek?
― djh, Wednesday, 25 July 2018 16:45 (six years ago) link
river traffic is up i think and that's already a very slow bit of the thames, so i'm assuming there's more diesel in the water? but maybe its fine!
― π ππ’π¨ (caek), Wednesday, 25 July 2018 16:54 (six years ago) link
new westgate centre: classic or dud? i'm no lover of shopping centres - stratford westfield is my idea of hell on earth - but i don't hate the new westgate. maybe it's because i visited in summer and got to appreciate the light and the views over the town, maybe it was the appealing mystery of trying to figure out how it fitted into the old westgate (visiting for the first time from the south entrance, one level below the old westgate and through what was the no-mans land of the multi storey car park, was very confusing). or maybe it's just an improvement on the extension of the centre that has appeared remarkably consistently in recurring dreams of mine over many years, a long wide dark tunnel, largely empty and somewhat ominous, stretching out over the oxpens road.
― home, home and deranged (ledge), Thursday, 26 July 2018 09:54 (six years ago) link
Westgate: I sort of ... can't be bothered with it.
― djh, Sunday, 12 August 2018 15:29 (six years ago) link
well fair enough it is just a shopping centre. I'm probably a wee bit more interested because it's not so far from my parents/my old house & route into town, and it is at least an improvement on a car park.
― home, home and deranged (ledge), Sunday, 12 August 2018 15:54 (six years ago) link
I could see how it would be interesting in a "route into town" sort of way. It doesn't suit me as it has pulled stuff away from my route to/from work and, I suppose, the feel of it isn't very me.
― djh, Sunday, 12 August 2018 18:08 (six years ago) link
I have a table at the Oxford Guild of Printers Wayzgoose at the Headington campus of Oxford Brookes this coming Saturday, if any of you fancy coming to say hello:
https://www.wayzgoose.info/events/oxford-guild-of-printers-wayzgoose/
There will be quite a lot of very brilliant printed matter on display, also a table with me sitting behind it (I'm "The Half Pint Press").
― Tim, Wednesday, 30 October 2019 14:25 (four years ago) link
Couldn't decide on a better thread to ask this but any idea how long Covid-19 tests are taking in Oxfordshire, specifically the Oxford Parkway site?
― djh, Thursday, 1 October 2020 19:50 (three years ago) link
Gah! 5+ days, seemingly ...
― djh, Saturday, 3 October 2020 15:50 (three years ago) link
anyone here from oxford & environs, what do *you* call the M40 cutting on the way to london officially known as the "Aston Rowant Cutting, also known as the Stokenchurch Gap or Aston Hill cutting"?
― ledge, Wednesday, 22 September 2021 19:52 (two years ago) link
this: https://goo.gl/maps/9wAaamF8GKA23j456
― ledge, Wednesday, 22 September 2021 19:54 (two years ago) link
"The Cut" is what we called it (I'm originally from Bicester)
― carson dial, Wednesday, 22 September 2021 20:20 (two years ago) link
What I really want to know is, does anyone call it chicken shit canyon, or similar? Supposedly because they sprayed the sides with the stuff to help grass grow and stabilise it. Don't know where I picked up the name from, I remember a teacher calling it chicken muck pass, not sure if he was bowdlerising it for our benefit. This information isn't on Wikipedia, I feel it needs to be saved for posterity but there are only a handful of references on the web in a couple of random forums.
― ledge, Wednesday, 22 September 2021 20:40 (two years ago) link
morning bump for this crucial investigation.
― ledge, Thursday, 23 September 2021 07:58 (two years ago) link
Any recommendations for Oxford(shire) Brutalist/Modernist buildings?
I've had the slightly wine-fuelled idea that I should compile myself a tour.
― djh, Wednesday, 20 October 2021 20:16 (two years ago) link
St. Catherine's College, the Denys Wilkinson Building, the Garden building at St. Hildas, the Florey Building, the Margery Fry House for a start?
― carson dial, Wednesday, 20 October 2021 20:42 (two years ago) link
DWB is a banger
wolfson college too?
― π ππ’π¨ (caek), Wednesday, 20 October 2021 21:32 (two years ago) link
Maybe a little recent for you but the Bishop Edward King Chapel, Ripon College (in Cuddeston, just outside Oxford) is somewhere Iβd like to visit.
― Tim, Thursday, 21 October 2021 06:58 (two years ago) link
St Cross building?
― woof, Thursday, 21 October 2021 09:39 (two years ago) link
Wadham college library?
Not brutalist but tooling around in google maps I just noticed the Blavatnik School of Government building next to Freud on Walton St which is pretty neat and passed me by (unsurprisingly as I haven't lived in oxford for over twenty years).
― namaste darkness my old friend (ledge), Thursday, 21 October 2021 10:50 (two years ago) link
There was a time (when I first moved to Oxford) when I thought Frevd's was a place of wonder. And then it suddenly seemed to be a waste of an amazing space. Haven't been for years, so don't know how it is currently being used. I guess it is airy?
― djh, Thursday, 21 October 2021 19:03 (two years ago) link
I was never 'cool' or clued in enough to go there much at all, glad it's still there though.
― namaste darkness my old friend (ledge), Thursday, 21 October 2021 19:21 (two years ago) link
This looks good for mooching:
https://bluecrowmedia.com/products/modern-oxford-map
― djh, Saturday, 17 February 2024 10:50 (seven months ago) link
looks good, I bet there are some hidden gems. the monstrously mysterious denys wilkson building may have been a formative influence on my penchant for brutalism, along with the nazi fortifications in guernsey, where we often holidayed.I was disappointed to find out (online, not in person) that the nosebag had closed. is georgina's in the covered market still open? google says yes but no reference on the covered market website.
― organ doner (ledge), Saturday, 17 February 2024 12:10 (seven months ago) link
Did my PhD in the DWB. sat at the top of the tower for the last year.
― π ππ’π¨ (caek), Saturday, 17 February 2024 13:31 (seven months ago) link
was it a phd in opening a dark portal to the non euclidean realm of the elder gods?
― organ doner (ledge), Saturday, 17 February 2024 13:47 (seven months ago) link
I was disappointed to find out (online, not in person) that the nosebag had closed. is georgina's in the covered market still open? google says yes but no reference on the covered market website.
Was never a fan of the Nosebag and didn't mourn its passing.
Georgina's is still there, although the character of the Covered Market is very different now, ledge. There are two pop-up pubs now, for example.
Oxford Cheese Company is my main reason to visit it these days.
It's great that the Grapes is back open on George Street, complete with 3D bunch of grapes sign. Too bad they've taken away the wooden divides, but they now have a turntable and a stack of records which you can leaf through and ask them to play.
― Grandpont Genie, Saturday, 17 February 2024 14:33 (seven months ago) link
― π ππ’π¨ (caek), Saturday, 17 February 2024 14:45 (seven months ago) link
x-post - the Covered Market is a curious thing. Like, there's a wine shop (an off-shoot of Eynsham Wine Cellars) and a pizza place side-by-side, with shared tables and a seeming agreement that you'd probably buy from both ... but it doesn't quite work with the utter grimness of the nearest toilets.
― djh, Sunday, 18 February 2024 21:59 (seven months ago) link
Did anyone buy that Modern Oxford Map? Going to make it a mission to take one photo of everything on there.
― djh, Wednesday, 26 June 2024 19:47 (two months ago) link
Have started on this plan.
Have managed photos of the Nuclear Physics Laboratory, Margery Fry and Elizabeth Nuffield Houses and Shops and, um, the Castle Quays Car Park in Cowley.
Think I can make some of the other photo collecting part of pub crawls/wine walks.
― djh, Monday, 8 July 2024 21:15 (two months ago) link
Slightly niche question but is there a pub/bar in Oxford with a decent jukebox?
― djh, Wednesday, 17 July 2024 21:43 (two months ago) link
15 year old information, but the star on rectory road used to have a good one
― π ππ’π¨ (caek), Thursday, 18 July 2024 16:58 (two months ago) link
god, thereβs a pub iβd forgotten aboutβ¦
― Fizzles, Thursday, 18 July 2024 17:08 (two months ago) link
(the star i mean, i donβt mean some other unspecified pub iβve forgotten about)
The Wheatsheaf off the High Street is the only pub in Oxford that I know which still has a jukebox. The bar staff do play decent tunes at the Star in Rectory Road tho. Plus it has a nice big beer garden.
Caek & Fizzles: apart from getting rid of the pool tables at the back the Star will be v much as you remember it (I say that as a regular of 20 years!)
― Grandpont Genie, Thursday, 18 July 2024 17:22 (two months ago) link
thatβs good to hear! i might pop in at some pointβ¦
― Fizzles, Thursday, 18 July 2024 17:25 (two months ago) link
I used to live on Princes St in a house whose back garden shared a wall with the back garden of the Star. Great days. Sorry to hear the jukebox has gone!
― π ππ’π¨ (caek), Thursday, 18 July 2024 19:58 (two months ago) link
Oh, the Star is my "work drinks/people leaving work" pub. Great space. Will be there tomorrow!
― djh, Thursday, 8 August 2024 22:43 (one month ago) link
I shall almost certainly be there tomorrow!
― Grandpont Genie, Thursday, 8 August 2024 22:47 (one month ago) link
I do like the "take a pizza in from around the corner and pay a quid" thing.
― djh, Tuesday, 13 August 2024 22:05 (one month ago) link