Photos of Oxford: architecture, fog, frozen canal, church tower views and The Monochrome Set -

Here’s a selection of around 80 photos taken around Oxford during a chilly early March weekend.

It’s a beautiful place to visit, with some striking architecture and plenty of history to absorb – and there’s lots here for Harry Potter fans with locations like the Bodleian, New College and Christ Church featuring in many of the early films.

Snow was still on the ground when we arrived at Oxford’s well appointed but architecturally bland railway station.

The independently owned Royal Oxford Hotel stands on one of the three sides of the confusingly named Frideswide Square.

Open till 3am on weekends, the Oxford Retreat proved a relaxing way to wrap up a long night.

On the frozen Castle Mill Stream.

George Street view.

Former Old Boys High School.

Founded in 2010 via a contentious £75 million donation from the Ukraine-born businessman Leonard Blavatnik, the Blavatnik School of Government is made up of an irregular stack of cylindrical and horseshoe-shaped blocks make up the curving glass form. Read more here.

Oxford Picturehouse in the snow.

I was in Oxford to play with the Monochrome Set at the Jericho Tavern.

The Jericho Tavern played a pivotal role in the late 1980s music scene, hosting soon-to-be famous acts like Ride, Radiohead, and Supergrass.

Other acts to play at The Jericho include Mumford and Sons, Stornoway, Bastille and the Bombay Bicycle Club.

Monochrome Set onstage (live pics by Viola Spanu).

I played a kit with a very small tom and an almighty hefty bass drum. It sounded ace,

Walking back into town.

Castle Mill Stream feeds into the River Thames in Oxford.

Catching some late beers at the Oxford Retreat. A DJ played on his lonesome at the far end, while a small hen party made the most of the night.

Despite it being around 1am, it was free to get in and the staff were really friendly too.

We stayed at the YHA in Oxford, which was fairly basic but perfectly satisfactory.

Guests were invited to leave a message on luggage labels on a display in the foyer.

The post-modern architecture of the Saïd Business School, the University of Oxford’s centre of learning for undergraduate and graduate students in business, management and finance.

Oxford Royale says:

The design of the Saïd Business School is similarly knowing. The product of a £70 million donation to the University of Oxford from Saudi-Syrian businessman Wafic Saïd, it consciously references the donor’s heritage with a ziggurat (ultimately inspired by the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, in the Persian empire) but also the traditional design of an Oxford college or a medieval monastery, with a cloistered garden

Oxford Castle mound.

Oxford Castle.

Amen to that.

Oxford council building.

We were served an excellent breakfast here.

St Martin’s Tower – popularly called “Carfax Tower” is all that remains of the 12th-century St Martin’s Church.

Built between about 1122 and 1896, you can climb to the top for a small fee.

The tower still has a ring of six bells: five recast from the original ring by Richard Keene of Woodstock in 1676, plus another cast by Keene two years later.