A Guide to Lyra’s Oxford: A ‘His Dark Materials’ Walking Tour

Oxford is a city where real and fictional worlds collide in Philip Pullman’s beloved fantasy series.

On this literary walking tour, you’ll explore the real Oxford locations that inspired Jordan College, discover filming spots from The Golden Compass and BBC’s His Dark Materials adaptation, and step into scenes straight from the pages of Pullman’s novels. From ancient college quadrangles to atmospheric lanes, you’ll experience Oxford through the eyes of Lyra Belacqua and her daemon Pan.

The tour starts at Exeter College on Broad Street, the real-world inspiration for Lyra’s Jordan College. You’ll walk through the winding historic streets of central Oxford, pass through the Covered Market where Roger would buy vegetables for Jordan College kitchens, and explore Radcliffe Square with its iconic domed Radcliffe Camera.

You’ll also visit the magnificent Bodleian Library where the alethiometer is kept in Lyra’s world, and pass under the photogenic Hertford Bridge where Lyra and Roger were filmed fleeing from Gyptian children. As you make your way through ancient lanes and past New College, you’ll see where many scenes from the adaptations were filmed.

The tour ends at the Oxford Botanic Garden where Lyra and Will promise to return each year and sit on the same bench in their different worlds. It’s a poignant site marked today with sculptures of their daemons.

On this 75-minute tour, you’ll have a chance to:

• Visit the History of Science Museum to see the actual alethiometer prop used in the BBC adaptation
• Explore Blackwell’s bookshop, where Oxford celebrates one of its most famous contemporary authors
• Discover the 600-year-old windows of Duke Humphrey’s Reading Room mentioned in La Belle Sauvage
• Walk the same streets where Philip Pullman studied while developing his vision of parallel Oxfords
• Stop at the Queens Lane Coffee House, one of Europe’s oldest coffee houses
• Visit the colleges that served as filming locations for both screen adaptations
• Find the Gothic doorway with its naphtha lantern that could easily belong in Lyra’s world
• Learn about other key locations like Jericho and Godstow Priory that feature in the books

Bring your daemon and your sense of adventure as we explore the places where the boundary between our world and Lyra’s blur into one. Finally, Lyra and Will’s bench awaits at the end of your journey. Perhaps in another world, another version of you is sitting there too.