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Oxford Bags
Sorry to have been off piste for a while, but at least I've been to Oxford on a bright warm April day, the streets awash with cycling professors and neo-punk girls. Unsuccessfully avoiding one of my favourite bookshops- Blackwell Art & Architecture, I then started to loiter with intent along unfamiliar streets, particularly in North Oxford with its detached houses of red brick and tiles forming the backdrops to billowing pink and white blossomings. Perhaps many are now divided up into flats, but it's still perfectly possible to imagine dons bent over Heroditus in their studies, dutiful wives out on the terraces with Bombay Sapphires, and the ghost of John Betjeman in the evening- "Oh! Fuller's angel-cake, Robertson's marmalade / Liberty lampshade, come shine on us all". And then St.Aldates and a wonderful timber survivor that embellishes the pavement outside the post office. Don't you just love that 'Newspapers and packets"? Only one sight caused me a little grief, as I ranged up my camera in The Broad to snap this row of gabled cottages with their warm stone roof tiles and coloured renders. Visitors to Unmitigated England know of my distaste for the current fad of over decorating buses, but how can the city live with this playschool crayoning? So come on Oxford, this isn't Blackpool; rise up from your sofas and re-runs of Morse and Lewis and demand something that better reflects and complements the beautiful and absorbing sights to be seen from the top deck.
10 comments:
When I was 'up', in the 1970s, quite a few of these North Oxford houses, many of which are truly cavernous, were occupied by the more senior dons, although even then some were subdivided into flats or even rooms for undergraduates. Nowadays I'd guess that more and more are flats, but the atmosphere of these streets, brick-built and tree-lined, still has some of its old tranquility.
I have a passionate hatred of grown-up things being decorated by children. I hate receiving a printed Christmas card scrawled by some 5-year old I don't even know in wax crayon. I also spurn the tea-towel with self portraits of all the children on it.
Naturally I'm delighted by the scribblings of my own children, but I don't get them screen printed and distributed throughout Leicestershire.
Baaaaahhhh!
You mentioned, in passing I realise, two of my favourites -
Blackwell Art & Architecture (LOVE IT) and Morse ..and now Lewis. I have grown old with both of those fine institutions.
Phil: 'Tranquility'. That's just the word for these tree lined streets.
WH: I usually agree about kiddie art, but have to say I really do like the design that won the competition for the upcoming Queen's Jubilee. So much more thoughtful and exciting than the wretched Olympic symbol.
Hels:I'm a Morse / Lewis fan too.
I wonder how long before there's a series planned called 'Hathaway'.
Love the posting box.
I suppose the top deck of the bus is the best place to sit.At least you can't see the awful things.They do the same to all sorts of things here in Canterbury.I blame the lazy use of computer graphics taking over from paint,brushes and imagination!!
That sort of quiet that is very Bedford Park. At least until someone tries to cycle off after an evening drinking ESB and forgets that their bike is chained to the fence.
There was a really good article in the Radio Times a week or so ago that discussed the Morse / Lewis / Hathaway issue. Kevin Whately originally didn't want to do 'Lewis' because he felt the character wasn't meaty enough to justify a series. Now that he's doing it, the prospect of a 'Hathaway' spin-off has been discussed, but Whately is convinced that Lawrence Fox has a career in film awaiting him and so has advised him not to do it at the expense of a potentially bigger career. It won't be for a while though I reckon - 'Lewis' is just too good.
Ah Ron. Summer nights in Bedford Park. Paul Weller's Stanley Road in the CD player, steak 'n' kidney pies from Chiswick M&S and the sound of rending timber. Lovely
We lived in Abingdon when I was based at Benson, so Oxford was a frequent visit. I always thought it looked lovely, apart from all the bloody students and tourists. Used to chew the fat with Danny the drummer for Supergrass, in a nice little pub called The Old Tom on Aldates. That was then - it's a Thai restaurant now.
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