18/08/2026
First stop after London: Oxford – the city of dreaming spires… 🏳️🌈🎓
We spent the morning exploring more than 500 years of q***r Oxford on a FASCINATING walking tour through the city and university, led by the amazingly knowledgeable and incredibly lovely Hannah Field Hannah Field , who had us enthralled from the start…
One of our first stops was Merton College, where we heard the story of Richard Edmund, a fellow accused in 1492 - before the infamous Buggery Act of 1533 - of “sins against nature”. The charges included seducing young men, visiting “suspect spots”, “nocturnal prowling” and, most memorably, “often laying outside the college suspiciously.” He was eventually expelled, but the proceedings were kept secret – protecting the college’s good name and quite possibly saving Edmund from ex*****on.
Jump forward nearly 400 years and Oscar Wilde was an undergraduate at Magdalen, already cultivating his flamboyant persona and spending more than he could afford. In 1877 he was brought before the University’s Chancellor’s Court over unpaid bills, including more than £40 owed for clothes. We even sat in the historic Chancellor’s Court ourselves.
Then there was Parson’s Pleasure, Oxford’s once notorious men-only n**e bathing spot by the River Cherwell. When a boatload of women supposedly surprised the naked men, most covered their modesty – while the wonderfully camp Oxford don Maurice Bowra covered his face, apparently saying:
“I don’t know about you, gentlemen, but in Oxford, I, at least, am known by my face.” 😂
The same Maurice Bowra is also credited with:
“Buggery was invented for that awkward hour between Evensong and cocktails.” 🤣🤣🤣
We also heard the fascinating story of Michael Dillon, who studied at St Anne’s and in the 1940s became the first trans man known to have undergone phalloplasty. After being publicly outed by the press, he eventually left Britain and became a Buddhist monk in India.
All of that before lunch… and then we went to Blenheim Palace. 🏰
