The Venue

This conference will be held in the Oxford University Museum of Natural History, designed by John Ruskin. Appropriately enough, at one stage it was proposed to name this building the “Museum of Natural Theology”. This magnificent neo-Gothic Grade I listed building contains scientific collections gathered over a period of three centuries. It was opened in 1860, and is widely regarded as one of the finest of its kind. The Museum houses Oxford University’s extensive world-wide collections of entomology, geology, mineralogy, and zoology, including local dinosaur finds, a 13 metre Tyrannosaurus Rex, and the Dodo made famous in Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland. The building itself is one of the finest examples of the Victorian Gothic style of architecture. Its huge glass roof over the central museum court is supported by cast iron shafts, decorated with wrought iron spandrels.The Museum also includes a state of the art lecture theatre, fully equipped for digital presentations.

Click here for a virtual tour of the Museum

For details of the Museum’s history, architecture, and exhibitions, click here

Conference delegates will have access to the Museum’s exhibits throughout the conference. We are also negotiating to see if it may be possible for conference delegates to view the room (no longer open to the public) in which Samuel Wilberforce and Thomas Huxley debated Darwin's Origin of Species during the 1860 meeting of the British Association.

The University Museum is next to the University Parks, which provide a rich variety of trees. The Parks, which run down to the River Cherwell, provide some outstanding walks.

For a virtual tour of the Parks click here

Click here for the Oxford University Museum website

Other Oxford University Museums:
Pitt Rivers Museum
Ashmolean Museum
Bate Collection of Musical Instruments
Map of Oxford Museum locations