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Radcliffe Camera and Bodleian Library Review

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Radcliffe Camera and Bodleian Library

Address: Broad St., Oxford
Phone: 01865/277224 for information on tour
www.bodley.ox.ac.uk

Category: Libraries
Location: Oxford

Write a review | Avg. member rating: 3.8/5

Fodor's Review:

This vast library is Oxford's most spectacular building, built in 1737-49 by James Gibbs in Italian baroque style. It's usually surrounded by crowds of tourists with digital cameras trained at its golden walls. The Camera contains part of the Bodleian Library's enormous collection, which was begun in 1602 and has grown to more than 6 million volumes. Much like the Library of Congress in the United States, it contains a copy of every book printed in Great Britain (not all are held in this building, which is the library's public face). Although only students and professors are allowed inside the Camera, the general public may step into another part of the Bodleian, the Divinity School. This superbly vaulted room dates to 1462. In the Harry Potter films, some interior scenes at Hogwarts School take place in the Bodleian, including the Divinity School.

Cost: £4, extended tour £7
Open: Tours of Bodleian Mar.-Oct., weekdays at 10:30, 11:30, 2, and 3; Sat. at 10:30 and 11:30; Nov.-Feb., weekdays at 2 and 3; Sat. at 10:30 and 11:30. Children under 14 not admitted. Divinity School weekdays 9-4:45, Sat. 9-12:30

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Member Reviews and Ratings

Reviewed by bachslunch from US on 4/22/08
The Radcliffe Camera is not open to visitors, and you hardly see any of the Old Bodleian Library unless you take one of their not-so-frequent tours. But it's well worth visiting if you take the tour, which is extensive and informative. The tour guide will refuse a tip (and embarrass you in the process) if you offer one at the end of the tour, so don't do that.