Lyra's Bench (Botanic Garden)
The bench at the back of the Botanic Garden where, in the closing chapter of Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials, Lyra and Will promise to sit at noon on Midsummer's day every year.
The bench sits at the back of the garden, beyond the herbaceous borders. Visitors leave 'Lyra + Will' graffiti and small offerings on Midsummer's day in particular. Garden staff don't formally signpost it — ask at the entrance if you can't find it.
The Oxford Botanic Garden was founded in 1621 when Henry Danvers, 1st Earl of Danby, contributed £5,000 to set up a physic garden on a site at the northeast corner of Christ Church Meadow, alongside the High Street. It is England's oldest scientific garden.
In Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy, a bench at the back of the garden is one of the locations that "stand parallel in different worlds" — the place where, in the closing chapter, Lyra Belacqua and Will Parry promise to sit for an hour at noon on Midsummer's day every year, each in their own world. The bench is a real, pre-existing bench in the garden rather than a memorial commissioned for the books, and visitors leave "Lyra + Will" graffiti and small notes around it. It is reached through the main entrance on Rose Lane and visited as part of normal garden admission.
Nearby
Within a few minutes' walk
