What's it like to live/work/grow up in Oxford or Cambridge

[ItsAStarManWaiting]

I'm asking what it's like if you are not at all related with the Universities at all?

Are Oxford and Cambridge dominated by the university, it's staff and it's students?

Do the universities do things for the locals?

Just curious that's all.

I live fairly near Oxford and go at least once a week. It’s a great city and hasn’t become ‘woke’ like London.

My sibling lives and works in Oxford. I visit regularly. I can't say I notice much uni stuff at all. Where they live is very much normal family.vibe.

DH used to lecture at Cambridge.

I asked him did the University do anything for locals, his reply was ‘fuck all, there is the expression town and gown’.

Of course there are museums and guest lectures where the public will have access, as all Universities have them. There will be the occasional initiative.
He said tourists were the annoying issue.

The University is a huge employer locally for non academic staff, but Cambridge has extremes of wealth and poverty so the money doesn't trickle down to everyone. Tourists are more annoying than students in my opinion, especially in the very small historic centre.

The colleges were brilliant in lockdown in that they opened up their accommodation to help the homeless community.

I don't think MichaelandKirk knows Oxford as well as they think they do.

I live in Oxford and find it fantastically 'woke'. As a middle-class, middle-aged white woman, I really appreciate all the opportunities it affords me to challenge myself and think about the modern world in new ways. I loved living in The Cotswolds before moving here and I enjoy the easy journey back there to see my friends and enjoy rural pubs and walks.

Oxford has a council who have introduced low traffic neighbourhoods, all food provided at council events is vegan, the city is diverse, actively welcoming to refugees (our local mosque, in particular, takes a community lead), and very LGBTQ+ friendly.

We're surrounded by beautiful countryside, have two theatres and the various university colleges put on interesting and challenging talks and debates so that those who want to broaden their minds and consider new ways of thinking can do so. Wonderful classical music too. The Ashmolean museum also curated fabulous, thought-provoking exhibitions.

The university does own a lot of the high street shops and is, I believe, a demanding and expensive landlord, so that we have more empty units than is desirable but the new Westgate shopping centre has provided more choice.

Oxford is less dominated by the university than Cambridge is - the BMW factory is a huge local employer and there is a lot of big employment close by - a lot of people live in or around Oxford and commute to London (obviously) Birmingham and Reading.

The university museums are good and there are a lot of publicly available concerts/ lectures etc.

As a teenager, it was a very safe place to go out as there are so many students in the centre of town and if you were in difficulties (like the time I was 13 and followed by a creepy man) you could go into the colleges and the porters would keep an eye on you until parents could collect or the next bus was ready to go.

It's a lot of fun living in Oxford and raising a child here was (is) great. I lived in quite a normal bit of the city which was just about affordable when I arrived there, less so now, but we had easy access to everything in the city (I'd say 5 theatres tbh!) The big plus of any university city is the big influxes of young people every term. The place is always buzzing. I don't think about the university much but it underpins a lot of things I like about living here - the culture, the green spaces, the beautiful buildings, the number of evening classes etc.

I brought up my kids in Cambridge.

Erm.

Lots of the people in Cambridge are there related to the uni. Visiting lecturers, undergrads, people who graduate and stay.
There's a hospital as well and quite a big science park and these days quite a lot of biotech but an awful lot of people who work in those area are either ex Cambridge or very academic (eg from overseas but went to a good uni there).

I worked as a teacher in a local state secondary for a long time and we had a lot of international families who had lived/worked overseas and were in Cambridge either temporarily or permanently for the uni.

It does mean the city has a very international vibe that you don't get elsewhere around east Anglia.

Many people who work at the uni now cannot afford the house prices in Cambridge and live out north - waterbeach, Ely etc, and commute in.

I grew up in Oxford.

In the 80s and 90s it was an amazing place to grow up. Radiohead, Supergrass Jericho Tavern, Phoenix cinema, dodging film sets and spotting celebs at bus stops.

I like the transformation of the Westgate Shopping centre as it was a concrete monstrosity. But I can't help but feel a lot of the soul of the city has left with the gentrification of it. Traffic is awful and people are a lot more pretentious than they used to be.

Back in the day it was socialist groups campaigning against the bomb, cannabis activism and art installation to challenge convention (great white shark). Now it's pretentious virtue signalling wokeness with no real spine, just ironically main steam conformity in a different guise.

Bit sad that it's not as trend setting as it used to be. More like trend following now.

But still got a soft spot for Oxford.

I've lived and worked in Cambridge, previously. I really enjoyed it, I like it as a city. This was a couple of decades ago, though!

Currently live in a village near Oxford. Traffic is horrendous - a main route into the city is closed and there are always roadworks. Commuting from home to the city can take me an hour and I'm only 5 miles away! University owns a lot and seem determined to take away local shopping, residential or leisure opportunities to build more student accommodation or university buildings. They seem to want the whole of the city centre to be just university-related.

The Westgate shopping centre isn't brilliant and they are going to put in bus gates so you can only get to places by going via the ring road (A40/34). Not good when I have to travel in from the south to a place just north of the centre - will necessitate driving out to the ring road, round and in again from the ring road, possibly tripling my commute.

I suppose it would be okay if you lived within walking or cycling distance of your job, which I don't. Can't wait to swap jobs and leave the city centre behind except for fun stuff.

Loved growing up in Oxford but agree with a lot of the above, it’s lost its soul, it’s gone too woke, house prices are crazy, traffic is a nightmare.
I’ve now moved away and am much happier.

I was brought up in Cambridge and went to Oxford uni.
Cambridge was quite dull back then (hence went to Oxford, I'd already done the 2 nightclubs a lot), but seems much more exciting now with bowling alleys and multi screen cinemas etc but still had a great time. Some people uni related, or science park, or commuted to London.
Lots of tourists though!
I lived in a village. 3 busses a day. Parent's constant taxi service.
However both now seem to want to stop cars going anywhere near the town. Great for tourists but not to live there.
Also they are expensive. Cheaper to live in outer London than Cambridge.

Born in and grew up close to Oxford and to me it is just another city (although a very pretty one) and I loved working there (now retired). Lunchtime walks through the parks, alongside the Thames etc still stay with me.
Never had any direct connection to the colleges other than enjoying walking around them from time to time. In fact, apert from going into them for work related purposes (as contractors), I don't think anyone within my wider family has ever been directly connected to them.
My biggest issue with modern day Oxford (apart from the traffic which was never good but has now reached ridiculous proportions) is the tourists and the way a lot of my old haunts have changed. I know they bring a lot of money into the city but it has now got that I only go into the city out of peak tourist season (if there is such a thing) and try to keep away from the really busy parts.

<wonders if @Octavia64 and I worked at the same school>

Cambridge is a beautiful city but so so expensive. That’s the main drawback for me. It really is like London prices. I’d have loved to have raised my family there though.

But to answer the question a bit more specifically - I always found there was a well meaning but slightly patronising attitude in Cambridge towards those with ‘less.’ There was a case a few years ago when a homeless woman gave birth on the streets around Christmas. Absolute horror was the reaction and thousands were raised, but there was more to it. I can’t remember what, but it was a typical Cambridge reaction, it is always very spreading largesse to the poor. As a result homelessness is a big problem there.

I’m from Oxford and agree with alll of this.

the university doesn’t impact your life unless your work there, however I found it to be a beautiful companion- the architecture, history, the dreaminess mixed with hard ambition and super intelligence sorted of oozes out.
It also has a more recent industrial past which is a nice juxtaposition.

it was a privilege to grow up there.

i have worked in Cambridge and it seems a more significant employer which means it has more impact on the population but i think Cambridge is a smaller city.

I grew up near Cambridge and went to 6th form in the city.

The place has changed totally since I lived there though.

there was very much a town and gown split. The Camb uni students didn’t really go to the clubs or pubs in town. They stayed in college a lot. The APU (as it was then) students were more visible in the clubs etc.

The uni students could sometimes be really snooty. I remember having one tell me very patronisingly that there had never been a big red lion in Lion Yard 🙄

The students and tourists were equally as annoying in the city centre. The bikes were scary sometimes.

I lived for 20 years in Oxford - went to Poly there and ended up staying.

Absolutely loved it. Still think of it as my home now, but my god the house prices..... will never be able to afford to go back

I grew up in a village just outside Cambridge, albeit 25 years ago. It was a wonderful place to grow up. Very vibrant, lots going on, felt very safe, good transport links. Great place to be a teenager .

Lived in Cambridge. Place is an absolute dump. Terrible illogical planning makes it impossible to get anywhere. Constant gridlock. Mindless tourists everywhere. Other than that it has the same plus and minus points as living in most major cities. Lot of crime, poverty, homelessness. But nice to be near reaturants and entertainment.

It's pretty in parts but is completely overshadowed by the negative ime. I moved out of it. It's still technically my closest city but I actively avoid it. Wildly over rated.

When I was a student at Cambridge in the previous century, you could count the number of not-White undergraduates on the fingers of half your hand. I live in Oxford now - and it’s apparently one of the most diverse cities outside London. At least in terms of race / ethnicity.

Obviously Cambridge has changed in the intervening years, but pp are correct to note the oddities. I was last there about six years ago and found the tents in the city centre quite shocking. You would think, wouldn’t you, that such a conglomeration of large brains would have found a solution to homelessness, but … nope. From what I’ve seen, Oxford is somewhat more proactive (or less disdainful?) on this front.

Oxford feels, in comparison to some other cities, (not Cambridge) very wealthy and well provided for. An abundance of green spaces open to all, plenty of public transport, every second building is a surgery or medical facility of one sort or another and in my recent experience (living within the city boundaries) we’re not waiting weeks for initial appointments with GPs.

The central shopping areas have been ugly and off-putting for as long as I’ve known them as an adult (about 40 years) but you very quickly learn to live with it because there are such riches to be had otherwise. And the Westgate is one of the few shopping malls in the country that I can tolerate.

Both the good and the bad - as described by pp stem directly from the exhilarating presence of the innumerable universities (plural!) and other educational institutions that exist here. And if you live here, pretty much everything (the location of Sainsbury’s branches, the type of schools available, jobs, the price of rented flats and the safety of parks) is related to that.

Thanks all. I wondered if the universities did stuff with the local schools to help them with r.e. widening participation etc.

I know the trainee teachers at Cambridge go into the local schools so there is a connection. I think local primaries use some college grounds? Lots of clever kids in the schools for sure!

I grew up near Oxford.
As a child/teen (80s/90s) I went there shopping a lot (C+A in the old Westgate and the other shopping centre with the cafe in Littlewoods 😂).
Often went to the ice rink. Did Lazer Quest I think once. When my older sister learned to drive we sometimes went and saw "art house" films at the cinema in Jericho. Saw various shows at the theatre.
The actual university wasn't even on my radar. Several of the famous buildings - I didn't even know they were part of a university.
I was aware of tourists (getting in my way) and them wandering around with maps. Me and my mum randomly decided one day to the open top tour bus. The guide pointed out the police station where Morse worked and the pub he went to. I don't remember the rest.
The McDonald's was always packed.