In this series we seek to rediscover film footage of Oxford’s past and make it available for public viewing. How has Oxford changed? How has it remained the same? What important events have happened at Oxford University? Each episode in the series makes use of archive films to explore when, where and how the films were taken, and what they can tell us about the history of the University, the city of Dreaming Spires and the surrounding Oxfordshire countryside. The series will include films ranging from the 1920s to the present day, featuring life in Oxford before and during World War Two, life as a student at the University, visiting dignitaries, the evolution of the city centre and much more.
The Oxford on Film series of videos is an output of the Dreaming Spools initiative. Dreaming Spools is a University of Oxford film archive project managed by Peter Robinson in the Educational Media Services team. The team are searching for lost film footage to bring old film footage out of the attics and into the archives and the wider local community. Many of the episodes are edited by local work experience students. More on the old Dreaming Spools blog: https://web.archive.org/web/20180226151245/http://blogs.it.ox.ac.uk/dreaming-spools/
This series started in 2014.
This episode explores how Oxford becomes a spectacular film set, featuring Harry Potter filming in October 2000, historic costume dramas, and striking archive footage of the city transformed for the screen. In this engaging episode, we explore how Oxford is repeatedly transformed by the magic of film into a vast and vibrant movie set. Drawing on a rich mix of contemporary and archive footage, the programme shows Hollywood productions filming in the streets, colleges, and iconic buildings of Oxford and the University.
Oxford has long attracted filmmakers seeking distinctive and memorable locations. A major focus is the filming of Harry Potter in October 2000, with celebrated locations including Christ Church (used as Hogwarts’ dining hall), the Bodleian Library’s Divinity School (Hogwarts’ infirmary), and New College Quad.
The filming inside the Bodleian Divinity School took place continuously, 24 hours a day over a single weekend, and had to be completed by Monday morning to avoid disrupting the working week for students and staff. The scale of the production was striking: more than 70 vehicles connected to the film were crowded into the streets surrounding Broad Street and Radcliffe Square, demonstrating the logistical impact of a major Hollywood shoot in the heart of the city.
The episode also delves into the archives to uncover colourful footage of earlier large-scale costume dramas. In 1999, Oxford was transformed into revolutionary France for the film Quills, and in 2001 the streets became a backdrop to the English Civil War during the filming of the historical drama To Kill a King. Throughout, crowds of costumed actors, elaborate sets, and extensive film-company equipment bring both history and fantasy vividly to life.
9 Dec 2025
MayDay Punting – A Trip into Oxford on May Morning
Oxford on May Day 2025 on a glorious sunny morning. Glide gently along the River Cherwell at dawn as a punt glides through misty meadows on the River Cherwell. Oxford awakens to May Day in 2025 on an unusually warm and golden morning. Drift gently along the River Cherwell at dawn as a punt glides through misty meadows beside Christ Church College, the city slowly revealing itself in soft light. The journey continues towards the heart of Oxford, arriving at the Botanic Gardens beneath the bridge by Magdalen College. Above, vast crowds have gathered as the bells fall silent and the Magdalen College Choir greets the rising sun from the tower. Calm, beauty, and celebration meet in this spellbinding river journey into one of Oxford’s most treasured May Morning traditions
3 Dec 2025
Oxford Thames Regatta 1924: Archives of the Planet
Step back to summer 1924 as Oxford crowds gather on college barges to watch the Thames Regatta—one of the earliest films of the city, captured for Albert Kahn’s visionary Archives of the Planet project. Experience Oxford in the summer of 1924 through one of the city’s earliest surviving films. Shot on 35mm by French filmmakers Roger Dumas and Camille Sauvageot, this remarkable footage captures the bustling crowds lining the Thames, cheering from the grand Oxford college barges as students race past in the heat of a perfect summer’s day.
From May to July 1924, the filmmakers were commissioned by French philanthropist Albert Kahn for his groundbreaking Archives of the Planet project—an ambitious global effort begun in 1912 to document human life, cultures, and landscapes before they disappeared.
Kahn’s extraordinary archive ultimately amassed 183,000 metres of film, 72,000 autochrome colour photographs, and 4,000 black-and-white images. This rare Oxford regatta footage survives today thanks to the Albert Kahn Collection and is shared here under their CC-BY-4.0 licence. Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial-Share Alike 2.0 UK: England & Wales; http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/uk/
Host of Oxford on Film: From Attic to Archive?
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