As the doors close on Oxford Open Doors for another year, we can do so in the knowledge that the sun came out, the doors opened and the feeling of warmth radiated from the stones of  Oxford’s many ancient buildings.  Oxford’s heritage spans the lives of many English royal kings and queens of centuries past and present, and now the future, and as the Sunday streets rang out with God Save the King from Carfax it seemed right that everyone could enjoy the thousand years of history at the Castle, where archaeology, stone carving, and vintage cars all added the busy atmosphere.  Talks at the Shakepeare Painted Room were as popular as ever alongside many of the colleges opened including Balliol, Lincoln, and Jesus College with its amazing new buildings alongside the old, and at St. John’s had a range of wonderful events taking place so that people could find out more.  21st century Oxford was also well represented with AI-DA brought to life in the Weston Library, the Blavatnik’s award-winning architecture wowing the crowds and the labs and scientists on hand at Old Road opening including the Jenner Institute where the Astra-Zeneca vaccine was developed. We are so grateful to everyone who worked with us so that we were able to continue with the weekend and give everyone the chance to share in Oxford’s extraordinary heritage, its people and its amazing places.  And the sun came out too.  This year all the donations will go to our Platinum Jubilee Appeal in memory of the Queen so we hope everyone will keep giving.  Finally, thank you to all the venues and their teams and to all our volunteers who helped to make it such a special weekend – we will be back next year. 

- Debbie