Discovering Lyra’s Oxford on a ‘His Dark Materials’ walking tour

“Lyra’s Oxford has the same street-plan as ours,” says Steve Fisher, of Oxford Official Walking Tours. “So the influence of the urban landscape is obvious. But the university’s intellectual and academic history also spurred Pullman’s imagination.”

The quad of the Bodleian Old Library embodies 17th-century education, with doorways to the three schools of philosophy (metaphysics, moral, natural) and seven liberal arts (arithmetic, geometry, music, astronomy, logic, grammar and rhetoric).

“Before the Age of Enlightenment, this was the curriculum of European universities,” explains Steve. “Most Oxford students were in religious orders, like the Dominicans or Benedictines, and the goal of education was to reconcile Greek philosophy with Christian theology.

He continues: “In Lyra’s Oxford, the scholars explore science as ‘experimental theology’. But the religious Magisterium sees this as a challenge to its authority and tries to put an end to the research, just as the real Catholic Church attacked academics who questioned papal cosmology.”

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We pass the domed Radcliffe Camera and stroll down St Mary’s Passage – believed to have inspired the wardrobe and streetlamp of CS Lewis’s Narnia – towards the High St.

“Remember how Lyra and her mates scrap with the ‘townies’ in the book?” asks Steve. “That’s a more benign version of the ‘town and gown’ violence between students and locals in the 1300s. Back then, Oxford was the murder capital of England and the students, most of whom were clergymen, were usually the instigators.”

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He points toward the crenellated Carfax Tower, which is all that remains of a 12th-century church.

“There used to be a tavern near there,” he says, “In February 1355, two students started a brawl with the owner, because they were unhappy with the wine. It turned into a three-day riot that killed 90 people. Medieval student life was more Game of Thrones than Fresh Meat.”

Pullman studied at Exeter College (which became Jordan College in Lyra’s world), which was founded in 1314 and constitutes the fourth-oldest college of the university. Less than a minute away is the History of Science Museum, home to the world’s largest collection of astrolabes: astronomical instruments that calculate time and latitude using star charts carved into brass, which inspired the alethiometer – a golden “truth reader” of needles and cogs that Lyra uses to outwit the Magisterium.

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The production company behind the BBC television adaptation have gifted their prop alethiometer to the museum, and it sits alongside antique telescopes, microscopes and globes from the museum’s collection. It’s a reminder that real instruments of scientific inquiry were once a direct threat to religious dogma in our own world, just as the alethiometer is in Lyra’s.

Lyra’s adventures bring her to our world where she visits the weird and wonderful Pitt Rivers Museum (free). Its entrance is hidden at the back of the Natural History Museum – an understated archway that takes visitors from an airy gallery of natural light to a sunken gallery of dark wooden cabinets.

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“It always makes me think of the portals in Pullman’s books,” says Kieran Brooks, a guide at the Pitt Rivers Museum. “A hidden doorway between parallel worlds, taking you from a world of nature and geology, to a world of culture and anthropology.” In this atmospheric space, items are arranged by function and type, rather than age or place of origin. So, gas lamps from 19th-century north America sit alongside ancient pitch-torches from southeast Asia, to show how different societies solved the challenge of lighting.

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We pass cases of “charms” and “sympathetic magic”, filled with sprigs of pine, amulets of stone, birch twigs and animal totems, before pausing at a case of fur-coats and Arctic sleds.

“The Pitt Rivers was both a setting and inspiration,” says Kieran, “Lyra comes to this very corner to see these items, and the birch, pine and talismans are associated with her world’s witches and polar bears.”

In a later book, a witch sends Lyra to the north Oxford Jericho neighbourhood and the Eagle Ironworks, which once existed in the real world. The factory has since been converted into flats, but the terraced houses that were home to factory workers remain, as does the canal that transported goods to the city. I follow it to the Thames, then cross the boggy Port Meadow to Godstow Abbey. The nunnery here fell into ruin during the Civil War, but in Lyra’s world it survived until 1986.

Across the river is The Trout pub (the Trout Inn for Lyra), but I head back into town along the right bank of the Thames, stopping at the magnificent garden of The Perch pub in Binsey for devilled eggs and ale.

His Dark Materials ends with the portals being closed, and Lyra being separated from her love, Will, who lives in our world. They promise to visit the Oxford Botanic Garden in their respective worlds at noon on Midsummer’s Day, to sit on a particular bench.

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The bench is a real one, overlooking the river beneath a Cornelian cherry tree. In 2019, a sculpture was unveiled there, featuring Lyra’s pine marten daemon and Will’s cat daemon. They are watched over by a raven – Pullman’s own daemon – which he chose because ravens steal things for good use.

Pullman may have stolen some of Oxford for his books, but by remixing its history and legends, he has made this old city feel more storied than ever.

The former Boswells department store on Broad Street has been revamped as The Store hotel and is unbeatably located. The highlight is its rooftop bar, which overlooks Oxford’s dreaming spires, including the Exeter College rooftops that Lyra scampers across. Doubles from £285 including breakfast.

Oxford Official Walking Tours start at £18pp for two hours.

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