HDM sightseeing in Oxford
PostPosted: Fri Aug 08, 2008 9:50 am
Not long ago I went on a holiday for three days to Oxford, and in that time I saw several locations from HDM! Some are from the books, others from the film. Here they are:
1) Sunderland Avenue and the infamous Hornbeam Trees. I'd glimpsed them from the car as we drove past on the way to the hotel we stayed at, and I thought to myself, "No, it can't be." Then, as me and my parents were walking to a bus stop to catch a bus into the city centre we took a wrong turn and I found myself standing by a sign saying "Sunderland Avenue" and a few yards away from the first in a long row of trees, the very same hornbeams in TSK. I was hysterical, and I think my parents nearly throttled me as it was all I talked about for a good time afterwards!
2) The Radcliffe Camera. I noticed the area of cobbled pavement beside the Camera which Lyra, Roger, Billy and several others run across in their Gobblers game at the start of the film, and also the wall where, during the opening narration, Lord Asriel and Stelmaria stand and he says "I should think so". (Yes, I'm that sad.)
3) Christ Church College. In the film scene where Lyra stands indoors waiting to board the sky ferry, and Mrs Coulter walks in and Lyra says she wants to say goodbye to Roger, you will see they are standing beside a flight of steps. I saw that area and those very steps (they are also used in the first Potter film, as the First Years walk up them to Professor McGonagall, who is waiting at the top and tapping her fingers on the balustrade). I also went across the massive quadrangle where Mrs Coulter's sky ferry is docked. (Christ Church also proved to be of great inspiration to Charles Lutwidge Dodgson aka Lewis Carroll, as he taught Maths there, and as a huge fan of the Alice books it was interesting for me to see the various things which inspired him.)
4) Streets and buildings which I recognised a lot from the TGC film, but which I never saw the name of. There are so many colleges in Oxford (39, to be exact) that after a while you loose track of them all. I think I saw the museum Lyra goes into in TSK, where she sees the trepanning skulls, but I couldn't be sure.
5) The Bodleian Library. This isn't really related to HDM, but ever since reading a certain book called Endymion Spring I have made it my lifelong aim to see Bodley's Library, and those who have read the book will definitely know why. It's a magnificent building, with the oldest part being hundreds of years old. Underneath the streets of Oxford are over 100 miles of shelving--called "the stacks"--crammed with over 7 million books, all of which can be requested from the Library. Whether a mythical book containing all the knowledge in the world is hidden down there I don't know, but I was gutted to find out the tour I went on didn't go down there. We did go to the Duke Humphrey's Library, which was used in the first two Potter films for the school library. I also saw the part of Bodley's that filled in for Hogwart's hospital wing.
I didn't get as far as the Botanic Garden
but the city was still very interesting for any HDM fan.
Another place I visited was Blenheim Palace, a breath taking building used in Kenneth Brannagh's Hamlet.
There's my list! It's pretty comprehensive, but I'm sure there are things which I missed out. By the end of the holiday, my parents were probably sick of hearing about HDM.
1) Sunderland Avenue and the infamous Hornbeam Trees. I'd glimpsed them from the car as we drove past on the way to the hotel we stayed at, and I thought to myself, "No, it can't be." Then, as me and my parents were walking to a bus stop to catch a bus into the city centre we took a wrong turn and I found myself standing by a sign saying "Sunderland Avenue" and a few yards away from the first in a long row of trees, the very same hornbeams in TSK. I was hysterical, and I think my parents nearly throttled me as it was all I talked about for a good time afterwards!
2) The Radcliffe Camera. I noticed the area of cobbled pavement beside the Camera which Lyra, Roger, Billy and several others run across in their Gobblers game at the start of the film, and also the wall where, during the opening narration, Lord Asriel and Stelmaria stand and he says "I should think so". (Yes, I'm that sad.)
3) Christ Church College. In the film scene where Lyra stands indoors waiting to board the sky ferry, and Mrs Coulter walks in and Lyra says she wants to say goodbye to Roger, you will see they are standing beside a flight of steps. I saw that area and those very steps (they are also used in the first Potter film, as the First Years walk up them to Professor McGonagall, who is waiting at the top and tapping her fingers on the balustrade). I also went across the massive quadrangle where Mrs Coulter's sky ferry is docked. (Christ Church also proved to be of great inspiration to Charles Lutwidge Dodgson aka Lewis Carroll, as he taught Maths there, and as a huge fan of the Alice books it was interesting for me to see the various things which inspired him.)
4) Streets and buildings which I recognised a lot from the TGC film, but which I never saw the name of. There are so many colleges in Oxford (39, to be exact) that after a while you loose track of them all. I think I saw the museum Lyra goes into in TSK, where she sees the trepanning skulls, but I couldn't be sure.
5) The Bodleian Library. This isn't really related to HDM, but ever since reading a certain book called Endymion Spring I have made it my lifelong aim to see Bodley's Library, and those who have read the book will definitely know why. It's a magnificent building, with the oldest part being hundreds of years old. Underneath the streets of Oxford are over 100 miles of shelving--called "the stacks"--crammed with over 7 million books, all of which can be requested from the Library. Whether a mythical book containing all the knowledge in the world is hidden down there I don't know, but I was gutted to find out the tour I went on didn't go down there. We did go to the Duke Humphrey's Library, which was used in the first two Potter films for the school library. I also saw the part of Bodley's that filled in for Hogwart's hospital wing.
I didn't get as far as the Botanic Garden
but the city was still very interesting for any HDM fan.Another place I visited was Blenheim Palace, a breath taking building used in Kenneth Brannagh's Hamlet.
There's my list! It's pretty comprehensive, but I'm sure there are things which I missed out. By the end of the holiday, my parents were probably sick of hearing about HDM.
and sundeland av is my avertar.. dont think i saw 3, 4 yeah, i suppose...and 5...i saw the old one but not the new and i couldnt do a tour as my brother was underage...i saw the Botanic Garden thoug and i loved the atmosphere...so relaxed and blenam? yes churchills little cttage....it was bigger than most places around here