All Souls College, Oxford

This morning we joined a walking tour of the City Centre, led by a very knowledgeable and entertaining PhD student, who talked about the history of the city and University as he guided us around some of the iconic colleges and buildings.

The main blip is of one of the wealthiest colleges, All Souls, which only admits 2 or 3 highly intelligent and well qualified post-grad Research Fellows each year and therefore spends the highest amount per capita per student of all the colleges, giving them an all expenses paid 7 year fellowship.

In extras are the Radley Camera, a reading room for students and the interior of the Divinity School, one of many local locations used in the Harry Potter films. It made for a fascinating 2 hours.

We lunched on falafel and tsatziki wraps and fresh mint, lemon and honey tea in what claims to be the oldest coffee house in Europe before strolling past some of the other colleges and the gaol and castle.

We were in need of a late afternoon nap back at the hotel before heading back in to the centre for a meal and a couple of beers in the Turf Tavern, another city institution which, amongst other claims to fame, was the inspiration for the pub that features in Thomas Hardy’s novel, Jude The Obscure.