Oxford, England Is the Ultimate College Town
This English university and its surroundings are every bit as magical and monumental as you’ve heard. Oxford is also full of hidden marvels, if you’re willing to wander.
![](http://hgtvhome.sndimg.com/content/dam/images/hgtv/editorial/profiles/editors/Lauren-Oster/headshot-Lauren-Oster.jpg.rend.hgtvcom.91.91.suffix/1462933889127.jpeg)
Shop This Look
Port Meadow
Home to the oldest university in the English-speaking world, the University of Oxford (which has produced 28 Nobel Prize winners), the charming town of Oxford is nicknamed the "City of Dreaming Spires" for the world-famous Gothic towers and steeples that define its skyline. At 51 miles from London, Oxford is a worthwhile detour, full of the art and culture you might expect of a university town, but also known for its incredibly diverse population and a pedestrian-friendly city center.
North and west of the city center along the Thames, “Oxford’s oldest monument” still bears evidence of burial mounds and settlements that date back to the Iron and Bronze Ages. The city’s founders made the land available as a common pasture in the 10th century, and native ponies and cows still graze there among the human picnickers. On sunny afternoons, there’s no finer place to escape civilization and amble through the clover.