River Thames, Two Museums, and a Park – Joel’s Journeys & Jaunts

After lunch today, my last afternoon in Oxford, I took a brief walk along the River Thames, visited the Oxford University Museum of Natural History and the Pitt Rivers Museum, and took a stroll through the University Parks.

Did I mention this was my last afternoon in Oxford? Why, yes, I do believe I did. Right there in the preceding paragraph. That was a test to see if you were paying attention.

Because I’ll be leaving tomorrow morning, a summary of my time in Oxford is due here. If you look, you’ll find it at the end of this post. If you don’t look, if you instead surf away immediately after reading this paragraph, well, then the heck with you.

River Thames

The River Thames runs through Oxford. That’s the same River Thames that London is famous for. This is probably just my ignorance, and everyone else in the world might have already known it, but before yesterday, I didn’t know that the Thames runs through Oxford. I saw on the map that there are rivers here, but I didn’t look at their names before I came.

Now I know.

The River Thames takes some weird turns in Oxford, splitting off into two River Thameses before rejoining into one. I started off walking along a smaller branch for a bit. That branch has natural shores with lots of trees and bushes along it. It’s very peaceful.

I walked along that arm to the point where it joins up again. There, the shores of the River Thames become much harder. It’s bounded on both sides by man-made walls. Despite lacking the soft edges, it’s still an attractive river at that point.

Some houseboats lined the river wall for a piece on the shore I walked along. These were not high-end houseboats. Many of them looked like they were made of old scrap metal bolted together. Most were relatively long. Many had solar panels mounted along much of their long roofs.

I think they were actively lived in, but the majority had a somewhat derelict look to them. They gave off an interesting vibe.

I didn’t walk particularly far along the river because it had been raining off and on all day up to that point, and although it was dry then, the clouds were darkening and the rain looked set to return. So I decided it was time to take in a museum. I didn’t quite make it to one before the rain did indeed start again.

Oxford University Museum of Natural History

The interior of the Oxford University Museum of Natural History is glorious. It has a sort of industrial feel to it, but in a very exciting way. Most of the interior is a tall atrium rising to a vaulted ceiling with two V-shaped sections of its glass roof.

Exhibits aren’t in separate rooms. They’re mostly in rows in the open space. It gives a very soaring, unobstructed ambience to the space.

The exhibits are what you’d expect of a natural history museum. There are casts of dinosaur fossils, some waterfowl taxidermy, gems, rocks, pinned dead butterflies and other insects, and a whole bunch of things I’ve forgotten.

One other thing I do remember is a large diagram depicting the evolutionary tree of life from the first known type of lifeform. However, the diagram wasn’t complete. For example, I didn’t spot any primates or even any mammals on it.

There’s also a lot of text talking about natural history topics, like, for example, the real scoop on the dodo, evolution, and aspects of paleontology.

Around the periphery of the museum, there are statues of some of the greats of science, such as Newton, Darwin, Galileo, Euclid, and many more. I didn’t try to count, but I think there were probably at least a couple dozen statues and busts.

I said that most of the space was a big atrium. Most, but not all. There is a balcony one floor up that runs around the perimeter of the space. It’s wide enough to house a few exhibits along the walls and a small cafe.

Pitt Rivers Museum

The PItt Rivers Museum is in a building immediately adjacent and connected to the University of Oxford Museum of Natural History. There isn’t a separate entrance to the Pitt Rivers Museum. You have to enter through the wide opening cut between the two buildings.

Like the Museum of Natural History, most of the Pitt Rivers Museum’s space is an atrium. But, like the former, the latter also has a balcony above it. In fact, it has one level up from that as well.

The space in the Pitt Rivers Museum isn’t quite as grand as the one in the Natural History Museum. The ceiling is opaque and flatter. And the expanse feels much less open.

Despite being effectively one big museum in terms of their cojoined space, the themes of the two couldn’t be more different. The Pitt Rivers Museum displays items representative of a wide variety of cultures from around the world. There are masks, totem poles, musical instruments, jewelry, religious items, toys, games, Arctic clothing, weapons, shields, and, well, you name it. Please, you name it. I’ve forgotten.

The displayed items are in glass cases. The cases are packed tightly, primarily on a grid pattern on the exhibit floor. If you want to get a sense of what the museum looks and feels like, think of a giant junk shop floor so fully packed with sales display cases that it feels cramped as you walk up and down the aisles.

The difference is that the display cases in the Pitt Rivers Museum are completely enclosed in glass, and the “junk” is valuable artifacts with significance to various world cultures, past and present. It is a fascinating, if overwhelming, museum.

I took a few pictures inside the Pitt Rivers Museum, one of the ones that I posted here is intended for a particular regular reader. If you’re that reader, you might spot the subject that I thought would interest you. It’s pretty much in the centre of the picture. However, it might be difficult to see because there’s a lot of glare on the glass front, and there’s a thin, vertical display case bar partially blocking a little bit of the item.

If you’re not that particular reader, you might not have the foggiest of ideas as to what I’m talking about, which would make it even more difficult to see.

University Parks

When I left the Pitt Rivers Museum and the Museum of Natural History, there was a lot of blue in the sky and the sun was shining, as tends to happen when there’s a lot of blue in the sky. The only dark clouds were on the fringes of the horizon.

There’s another recommended must-see Oxford sight, the University Parks. I took advantage of the spell of dry weather to visit the park.

Oxford University began buying land for the park from Merton College in 1853 and added to its purchases over time. Today, after using some of the land for the University Museum and other academic purposes, the park is still 74 acres.

The park comprises large expanses of lawns, lots of trees, and benches. Some of the lawns are just lawns. Others are sports fields. In addition, another river, the River Cherwell, runs through the park.

I strolled through the University Parks for a while, made it to the River Cherwell, and walked halfway across a humped bridge over the river. I took pictures of both sides of the river from there. But by then, it was starting to get late in the afternoon, and those dark clouds had darkened further and moved from the fringes of the horizon to directly overhead. I decided to plot the shortest route from there back to my hotel.

My walking tour app said that the park contains some flower beds. I hadn’t seen any when I headed to my hotel. I was disappointed, but I didn’t want to get soaked. However, just by the park exit I left through, there was a lovely, blooming flower bed. So, mission accomplished.

Oxford Summary

In my first post from Oxford, England, based solely on the half-day I’d spent here at that point, I predicted that when it came time to write this summary, I’d lament that I didn’t book more time here. That prophecy was accurate. Then again, I’m writing this. So, if I were concerned about having a perfect prognostication record, I could say it even if it weren’t true.

Nevertheless, it is true. Very much so.

This is a wonderful city with lots of charm, beautiful buildings, pleasant streets, and so much to do. I needed much more time.

Even within central Oxford, there are streets I didn’t get to explore. Oxford offers a plethora of museums, many of them rated as “must-sees,” that I didn’t have a chance to see. There are meadows and other parks that I’ve read or been told are enjoyable to walk through that I didn’t walk through. Plus, while I glimpsed it while in the University Parks, I didn’t explore much of the River Cherwell.

There are also a lot of colleges in Oxford that I didn’t get a chance to look at. Many of them aren’t open to visitors, so I would have had to suffice with looking at their exteriors, but the college buildings that I have seen have been worth gazing at.

The long and the short of it is, I don’t know if I could have done and seen everything I wanted to see and do with even another two or three nights here. It’s probably worth a return visit for me if I’m back this way.