Bodleian Libraries

The Bodleian is the heart of Oxford's scholarly world. Sir Thomas Bodley reopened the university library in 1602, and today the Bodleian Libraries hold many millions of items across a cluster of buildings around Radcliffe Square. The Old Bodleian quadrangle includes the Divinity School, a late-medieval lecture room with a spectacular lierne vault that looks like carved stone lace. The Radcliffe Camera, the circular domed building by James Gibbs from the eighteenth century, is the landmark you see on every postcard, and its reading room is used by students rather than visitors. Across Broad Street the Weston Library houses exhibitions of treasures, from medieval manuscripts to authors' papers, in a modern building that is open to everyone.

Understanding access makes the visit easier. The Radcliffe Camera and most reading rooms are working study spaces, so you will see them from the square rather than going inside unless you join a guided tour that includes them. The Divinity School and the Duke Humfrey's Library, the oldest reading room, are the usual highlights of those tours, and the Divinity School is the space used as the Hogwarts hospital wing in the Harry Potter films.

Tours run on set days and sell out, so book ahead, and note that spaces close for exams and university events.

The Weston Library is the easiest way in without a ticket. Its exhibition galleries are free and show changing displays drawn from the collections, which include Shakespeare's First Folio, Tolkien's drawings and early printed maps. There is a cafe, a shop and a calm reading space on the ground floor, and the building itself is a good example of how an old institution adapted to new needs. Radcliffe Square is also one of the best outdoor spaces in Oxford, with the Camera at its centre and the spire of the University Church beside it.

Use the tour as the framework for your day. The Divinity School tour linked here sits inside a walking tour of the highlights of the university, which makes it a good first-day choice. Follow it with a climb of the University Church tower for the view down over the Camera, then walk through the lanes toward the Sheldonian and Broad Street. If you only have a morning in the centre, the Bodleian square is the best single place to stand and take in the whole city of colleges.

Think of the Bodleian as three experiences rather than one. The first is the architecture of Old Bodleian and Radcliffe Square, which anyone can enjoy for free at any hour from the cobbles. The second is the guided tour, which opens up the Divinity School and, on longer versions, the older reading rooms and the underground link beneath Broad Street. The third is the Weston Library, which suits a flexible, no-ticket visit and is a good fallback when tour slots are sold out.

If you are interested in rare books, check what the current exhibition shows before you go, since displays rotate through manuscripts, maps, photographs and literary papers. Children under a certain age are usually not admitted to some tours, so check the age rules, and expect a security check at the door. Silence is expected in the reading rooms, and the guides will remind you that you are standing in a working library where students and researchers are studying around you.