Finding Wonderland in Oxford

One golden summer afternoon in 1862 Charles Dodgson, now better remembered as Lewis Carroll, went on a boating picnic on the River Isis. He was accompanied by his friend Robinson Duckworth and the Liddell sisters, daughters of the Dean of Oxford’s Christ Church College, where Carroll was a Maths don. On this lazy boat trip, he made up a story for Alice Liddel and her sisters. Ten–year-old Alice Liddell was the model for Wonderland’s Alice, her sisters Edith and Lorina were respectively the Eaglet and the Lori, Duckworth was, naturally enough, the Duck and Carroll himself featured as the dodo. (Carrols’ slight stammer sometimes caused him to introduce himself as Do-Do-Dodgson). Alice loved the story so much she begged him to write it down for her.

Christ Church College

Christ Church College was home to both Carroll and the Liddell family. The college’s medieval hall with its stunning hammer-beam roof, and adjacent grand staircase is grand and magical. No wonder it became the model for the Hogwarts dining hall in the Harry Potter movies. Carroll dined here every night, seated at the high table with Alice Liddell’s father who was invariably running late, inspiring the character of the White Rabbit. "Oh my fur and whiskers! I'm late, I'm late, I'm late!"

Christ Church Hall

High Table

Carroll’s portrait hangs in the dining hall, along with one of Dean Liddell and there’s a stained-glass window depicting Alice Liddell, along with the fictional Alice and the fantastical creatures she meets. The incredibly long necks of the brass firedogs in the hearth may have inspired Carroll’s description of Alice with a long neck that seemed “to rise like a stalk”. A portrait of College founder, King Henry VIII, who had two of his wives executed, probably inspired the Queen of Hearts’ cries of "Off with her head!"

Portrait of Lewis Carroll

Brass firedogs

The Liddell sisters used to play croquet in the Dean’s Garden of the College, watched by Alice’s cat Dinah perched high in the spreading chestnut tree. Dinah is mentioned in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, and she may have inspired the character of the Cheshire cat. A high wall separates the Dean’s Garden from the adjoining Cathedral Garden which Alice and her sisters were not allowed to enter, but they could peep into this hidden garden from their nursery windows. They often peered through the keyhole of the green gate into the forbidden garden, which inspired Carroll to invent the little door behind the curtain in the hallway.

The door into the forbidden garden

General entry tickets to Christ Church College do not provide access to the door into the forbidden garden, or the high table, but special tours do. They are extremely popular so book well ahead.

https://www.chch.ox.ac.uk/guided-tours

Alice’s Oxford

The Old Sheep Shop in Through the Looking Glass was inspired by the little shop in Broad Street where Alice Liddell used to buy her sweets. The owner’s bleating voice reminded Carroll of a bad-tempered sheep. Today the 500-year-old building is the Alice Shop, a treasure trove of all things related to Alice.

The Alice Shop

The Museum of Oxford has a permanent exhibition Looking for Alice which explores the lives of both Carroll and Alice Liddell. Exhibits include Carroll’s fob watch, just like the one the White Rabbit used, Alice Liddell’s dress, parasol and fan, first editions of the books and some of their original water colour illustrations.  

Carroll often took Alice Liddell and her sisters to the Museum of Natural History in Oxford, where some of the exhibits they saw were incorporated into Carroll’s stories. He was particularly fascinated by the incomplete remains of a dodo along with Jan Savery’s painting of the extinct bird.  

Savery’s dodo painting 

Take a break in the tranquil Botanic Garden where Lewis Carroll often picnicked with the Liddell family. Magdalen College Deer Park was another favourite haunt of Carroll and the children, as was the Christ Church Meadow and its riverside walks, including the Poplar Walk planted by Alice’s father in 1872.

Botanic Garden

Recreate the river outing where Alice’s adventures were first recounted. Hire a boat from the landing under Folly Bridge and row down the Isis, as the Thames is known locally, to Godstow, or walk the Thames Path right beside this stretch of the river. In the hamlet of Binsey, the old well next to St Margaret’s Church, known as Treacle Well, inspired the story told by Carroll’s Dormouse.  

The Perch is a pub located a little way out of the centre of Oxford but it was one of Lewis Carroll’s regular haunts and where he gave his first public reading of Alice in Wonderland. It has great food and atmosphere. 

The Perch

Every year on July 7th, the city of Oxford celebrates Alice’s Day with lots of Wonderland inspired events.

 Fun fact: the date on which ‘Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland’ took place is 4th May, which is Alice Liddell’s birthday.