Oxford's Bridge of Sighs isn't quite what it claims to be.

Opened in 1914 to connect the two halves of Hertford College, its real name is Hertford Bridge. The Venetian comparison is flattering but misleading: several guides quietly note it actually resembles the Rialto more than the Bridge of Sighs, though nobody seems to mind. The name stuck, presumably because it suits a university town rather well.

Evelyn Waugh studied at Hertford College, whose students were allegedly once locked out of the bridge because too many of them had become too generously proportioned for the staircase alternative. True or not, it's a better story than most plaques offer.

VoiceMap's self-guided audio tours trace the bridge's double life as a film location, placing it in the chase sequences of the BBC's His Dark Materials adaptation and following Lyra and Will as they dart beneath it and into the warren of New College Lane beyond.