Why go
Look beyond the Radcliffe Camera's familiar exterior to the Old Bodleian, Clarendon Building and Weston Library. Together they show how a research collection has spread through several buildings while remaining central to Oxford's scholarly life. A library-focused visit suits anyone more interested in books and architecture than in a general college tour.
The full story
Sir Thomas Bodley refounded the library in the Old Schools Quadrangle at the end of the sixteenth century; it opened in 1602. That original site is only part of the Bodleian story. The Radcliffe Camera became another conspicuous reading-room landmark, while the Clarendon Building and the building now known as the Weston Library extend the library's presence around Broad Street. An underground link connects the Old Bodleian and Radcliffe Camera for readers, a reminder that the public skyline and the working library are different layers of the same institution. The Bodleian is a legal deposit library, entitled to request copies of books published in the UK. Its holdings therefore serve ongoing research as well as historical display. The source also identifies treasures including a Shakespeare First Folio and a Gutenberg Bible, but those are collection holdings rather than objects to assume will be on view. For a visitor, the useful distinction is between admiring the exterior ensemble, visiting a public exhibition and entering a working library space under its own access arrangements.
Useful to know
- Explore the buildings around Broad Street and Radcliffe Square together to see how the library spans several sites.
- Check the Bodleian's official visitor information before planning an interior visit or a particular exhibition.