Broad Street

About Broad Street, Oxford

Broad Street is a wide street in Oxford, England. It is famous for its bookshops, including the original Blackwell’s bookshop at number 50. Locally, the street is known as The Broad.

Also in this street are Balliol College, Trinity College, Exeter College (front entrance in the adjoining Turl Street). The Museum of the History of Science (the original location of the Ashmolean Museum), the Clarendon Building, the Sheldonian Theatre and the new Bodleian Library building (the main University library, entrance in Parks Road) are important historical Oxford University buildings at the eastern end of the street.

The question is often asked “Where is the University?”. These buildings form the nearest equivalent to the centre of the University, since most academic buildings in the centre of Oxford are owned by individual (and autonomous) colleges rather than the University itself.