Known as 'The Broad' — bookshops, the Sheldonian, and the Oxford Martyrs memorial.
Broad Street, known to Oxford residents as "The Broad", is a wide street in central Oxford running just outside the line of the former medieval city wall. It is famous for its bookshops — chief among them Blackwell's at number 50, founded in 1879 — and for the cluster of major university buildings on its south side: the Sheldonian Theatre, the Old Ashmolean (now the History of Science Museum), and the entrance to the Bodleian Library complex through the Schools Quadrangle.
Trinity and Balliol colleges face the street on its north side, with Exeter College's frontage tucked behind. A small cross set into the road surface marks the place where the Oxford Martyrs — Bishops Hugh Latimer and Nicholas Ridley in 1555, and Archbishop Thomas Cranmer in 1556 — were burned at the stake. The more elaborate Martyrs' Memorial stands a short walk away on St Giles'.
The eastern end of Broad Street, around the Sheldonian, is one of Oxford's most-photographed corners.
Historical names: Horsemonger Street
Sources: Wikipedia: Broad Street, Oxford · OpenStreetMap · Bodleian Libraries — about the buildings
One of the oldest libraries in Europe — the Divinity School, Duke Humfrey's Library, and the Radcliffe Camera.
Scientific instruments from the Middle Ages to the 19th century, in the world's oldest surviving purpose-built museum.
An Oxford institution since 1879 — Broad Street bookshop with the cavernous Norrington Room below.
Broad Street's independent art supplies shop — paints, papers, and materials for working artists and students.
