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It's been nearly four years since I've walked the streets of Oxford, but I can still remember that walk through town to St. Catherine's College.
The creamy yellow buildings glow gold against the setting sun as we make our way back down Broad Street to where it turns into Holywell. The dinner crowd is just beginning to gather in front of the King's Arms, and the Bodleian is spewing students who have had their fill of intellect for the day. Holywell Street is quiet. There are a few students riding bicycles, their baskets full of books, groceries, wine from Oddbin's. The Alternative Tuck Shop is closing up for the night (their sandwiches are great, but I don't know what makes them alternative...), as is the Holywell Coffee Shop. Turn left on Mansfield Road, then a quick right on Longwall. Don't walk into passersby as you gawk at the boys of summer playing football on Wadham College playing field. Another left on St. Cross Road, cross the street at the zebra crossing, and we're nearly there.
As we turn right down Manor Road, flip the bird at the English Faculty Library. It's that big, ugly, modern building on the corner of Manor and St. Cross. It was my home away from home away from home for a year, as well as the bane of my existance. Throw a kiss to the Cherwell as we cross over it. And we're home.
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Saint Catherine's College was built by Arne Jacobsen in 1962. He had envisioned the first floor of all the buildings to be made of glass, so someone approaching the school would see this concrete building floating above the fields that lay behind the school. Lovely idea, no? Unfortunately, the site for St. Catherine's, lovingly called St. Catz, was previously used as a garbage dump and the ground couldn't hold up the tremendous weight of the glass and mortar.
To the untrained archetectural eye, St. Catz is ugly. After all those beautiful golden buildings throughout Oxford, I thought it was ugly. The archetects flocked there, taking pictures, trying to get into the staircases, talking about this and that, gawking at the ugly bell tower that stands horrid and cold at the center of the college. But for the longest time, I didn't get it. Slowly, I realized that the bell tower is a modern spire. It's brick front is yellowed, much like the rest of Oxford. And most of all, its doors are always open. Most other colleges are gated, visable only through keyholes and iron bars. There are no gates on St. Catz. It's only guarded by Mick, the kind hearted security guard who always greets students with a "Hiya." |
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Manor Road dead ends at the college. On your right is the New Block, and that first building is Staircase 17, where I lived in Room 12. Don't try to get in for souvenirs, folks; you need a swipe card (called a girovend) to get in. The appropriate way to ring up a student in the New Block is to stand out front and throw a handful of pebbles at their window until they come down and open the door for you. Just don't miss and hit someone else's window. That's just rude.
If you turn right, you'll enter the "main campus" of St. Catz. The ducks and swans love to hang out by the river, but don't get too close. They bite. Continue down the path past the modern statue (I don't know what it's of, make up your own story) and turn left at the water gardens. You'll enter the Porter's Lodge, the hub of the college. The porters take messages and answer all sorts of annoying student questions. But they're nice, so smile and wave. Students pick up their mail here, and since the dorm rooms don't have their own phones, students also come here to make phone calls from the two pay phones on your right.
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The doors ahead of you lead to the St. Catz quad. The two trees that grow there are strategically placed; one of them died and was lovingly and expensively replaced with the smaller tree. As the sign says, don't walk on the grass. The quad has really cool echos, since it's enclosed by buildings.
The library's that smallish building on the right in front of the bell tower. (It is ugly isn't it? Think modern spire.) The dining hall, administrative buildings and JCR, which contains a bar, buttery, pool tables, vending machines, dart boards and other such collegiate fun, is to the left. The other buildings that surround you are residence halls, and are called the Old Block. The proper way to ring up someone in the Old Block is to wait around until someone with a girovend comes along and opens the door; there are no pebbles on the quad, and there will be no pebble throwing here.
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You'll notice the puddle in the foreground of the picture above. I know, it's hard not to. It rains a lot in England, if you didn't already know that. But the rainbows are beautiful.
Before we end our tour of Oxford, there are a few more sights you should know about.
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