The vast acclaim that Sir Philip Pullman’s latest novel, The Rose Field, has received has cemented his status as one of Britain’s most successful writers. Such authors are listened to, whatever their concerns, and so it has been both unsurprising and depressing that Sir Philip has been bothered not about literary matters, but about his hometown of Oxford: in particular, the apparently never-ending roadworks that have been blighting the western approach to the city for years, and which show no signs of being resolved.
‘Those of us who live to the west of Oxford are more or less cut off from our own city,’ said Pullman
In a recent interview with the BBC, Pullman – probably the best known current resident of Oxford, along with Radiohead’s Thom Yorke and the broadcaster and comedian Alexander Armstrong – called the closure of the Botley Road ‘a bugbear to the people of West Oxford’. Pullman did not hide his anger at the inconvenience that has been caused both by this and the poorly communicated, ill-thought-through attempts to turn Oxford into a Low Traffic Network and to implement a congestion charge.
Speaking for many local residents, Pullman said: ‘It’s very difficult and it’s had a terrible effect on Botley itself and the shops. Those of us who live to the west of Oxford are more or less cut off from our own city by a piece of planning so egregiously bad that I’ve never seen the like. And now, on top of that, we’ve got the difficulty of coping with congestion charges and roads we’re not allowed to drive down.’ He concluded, with some vigour, ‘It is a very frustrating and irritating place – how anyone can be expected to make a living in Oxford as a trader, as a shopkeeper, or anything like that, I do not know.’
Or, indeed, to enjoy life in Oxford as a resident. As someone who lives off the accursed Botley Road, and whose home has been blighted by everything from building-induced cracks in the walls to hideous noise from the latest roadworks (which, in a refinement of cruelty, begin early in the morning on Sundays, when the railway station is closed to allow these things to take place all day), I can honestly say that for all the Arnoldian guff about ‘the city of dreaming spires’, the vast majority of people I know who live in Oxford in 2025 find it a frustrating and dispiriting place.
There are undeniably good things that have occurred here lately – the opening of the Schwarzman Centre in Jericho has given the city a much-needed contemporary concert hall and arts centre, although its programming does not begin in earnest until next year. But these have to be set against ever-rising house prices and rental costs, an apparently ineffectual city council that seems incapable of implementing the change that Oxford desperately needs, and is in any case trodden on by the all-powerful university. And, of course, the substandard hospitality offerings, where the historic pubs – including the expensively, presently refurbished Eagle and Child – receive all the attention and the restaurants tend to suffer in comparison. That the city’s best-known hotelier was recently charged with murdering his mother, in a twist worthy of Inspector Morse, somehow seemed to sum up Oxford’s ongoing chaotic decline.
Oxford remains a beautiful place, of course. There is undeniably something glorious about being able to wander round the parks and college buildings at all times of the year, even if some of the more rapacious will charge handsomely for the privilege; yes, Christ Church, I’m talking about you and your £22 entrance tickets. Yet set against this idyll is a growing sense that it is an increasingly unliveable city for anyone apart the privileged, wealthy few, who live in their North Oxford mansions unbothered by the cares and concerns that the rest of the 165,000 or so residents are burdened with. Their lives are indeed enviable. For the rest of us – from Sir Philip Pullman downwards – ‘frustrating and irritating’ sums up life in contemporary Oxford all too well. The question is whether it will ever improve, or if the worst, in the form of a Larry Ellison-funded corporate hellhole, is yet to come.
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