The Radcliffe Camera

The Radcliffe Camera isn't a camera in the photographic sense of the word - it's name derives from the Latin camera, meaning room or chamber and it houses the Radcliffe Science Library which sits pretty much at the centre of the Oxford University Colleges.  Last Saturday as we dandered around the town after installing Missy in her room down the road at Oxford Brookes I was surprised to see quite a few people in academic dress.  It soon became clear that there were graduations going on, which surprised me as most Unis have graduation ceremonies in July.  I think the later start might have been due to Covid restrictions earlier in the year, which have now lifted.  Anyway, later on in the early evening most of the families and new graduates had disappeared, no doubt to celebrate the big occasion and we more or less had the place to ourselves.  I snapped up this group of young people, which I'm guessing were, or are current students from the way they walked straight through the gates to the Radcliffe Camera, ignoring the 'Readers Only' sign.  They looked ready for a little celebration of their own, armed as they were with snacks and bottle of wine:

Whooping it up on the steps of the Radcliffe Camera, with All Souls College on the left.  Yashica T4, HP5+ on Foma 133 paper.  The buildings of the Colleges are mightily impressive.  Next time I visit I'll try to bring a proper camera rather than a point and shoot.

To the left of the Radcliffe you can see part of All Souls College, founded in 1438.  We peeked through the gates at the quadrangle and surrounding buildings, including the Chapel.  The view was just as you would expect - a little bit unreal.  All Souls College exists as a research College - apparently even Oxford Undergraduates are not entitled to enter its grounds.  Recent Oxford graduate or postgraduate high-flyers are invited to apply for a Fellowship through an entrance examination, which itself has an interesting history.  Once described as the hardest exam in the world, candidates used to be presented with a card which had a single word printed on it ('innocence', 'miracles', 'water', etc) and asked to produce a coherent essay on that subject in three hours.  Nowadays candidates are asked for four 3-hour essays over two days on various specialist or general subjects. That doesn't sound a whole lot better to me - I'd imagine you'd be pretty shattered after those two days.  Of the fifty candidates invited to apply, two are awarded a seven-year fellowship, which often sets them up for academic stardom, although typically not monetary riches - the stipend is a not overly-generous  £15,000 per year (although meals and accommodation seem to be included. The stipend does increase after the first two years). 

It's probably a bit late in the day for me to think about getting a Fellowship at All Souls but the good news is that the College is open to visitors, who can explore the College Front, the Great Quadrangles and the Chapel.  The bad news is that currently the College is closed to visitors until further notice. Covid again, probably.  Hopefully it will reopen at some stage and when it does, I shall endeavour to visit it and maybe even with a photo-apparat (if that's allowed).