The following may make for uncomfortable reading... but, says Esther Lafferty, that’s kind of the point
As part of IF Oxford – the city’s science and ideas festival taking place at 25 venues from October 6-30 – local academic-led organisation Uncomfortable Oxford is inviting people to uncover parts of the city’s history that may be unexpected or uncomfortable. It’s an opportunity to revisit iconic Oxford views and see them in a different light.
During conversation-based walking tours, a popular feature of the IF Oxford Festival since Uncomfortable Oxford’s inception in 2018, participants can hear and discuss surprising facts that underpin and counter the classical beauty of Oxford, uncovering the impact of smallpox and plague, dissection and Darwin on the city itself and on medical science today.
‘Walking through Oxford’s celebrated architecture, you can learn a surprising amount about global and local medicine,’ says Uncomfortable Oxford co-founder, Olivia Durand, ‘and see how health and disease shaped the city’s history, whether that’s in the structure of the streets, the provision of healthcare, vaccine development or influencing global opinion on eugenics. It isn’t all easy listening. Medical knowledge is slippery; it’s shaped by society and culture,’ she continues. ‘What was once perceived as an absolute truth may no longer be considered to be correct; and recommended behaviours today may be seen as harmful in the future.’
The tour begins under Oxford’s iconic Bridge of Sighs on medieval New College Lane, its twists and turns lined with high stone walls and gargoyles to ward off evil and protect those within. From here almost every building you see tells a tale.
New College, despite its name, is one of the oldest colleges in Oxford; it was founded in 1379 and owes its existence in part to the Black Death. Medieval Oxford, a small walled city, boasted a moated Norman castle on a hill at city’s West Gate; high ground was the best place to live. Those who could not afford to were forced to settle where land was lower and prone to flooding. The plague reached Oxford in 1348, killing 50% of the population, with a second wave in 1361. The rich evacuated to safety, so the death rate was the poor. This left much of the lower-lying land vacant and cheap, hence New College was established as the largest college in Oxford; its size and position along the eastern wall of the city a direct consequence of the geographic distribution of poverty and disease.
For many centuries, students at the University could study only theology, law or medicine – even Classics was a modern addition in the 17th century. Behind the heavy, arched doors in the Old Bodleian Library Quadrangle, anatomy was taught through the dissection of cadavers. King Charles I had decreed that the bodies of those executed within 21 miles of Oxford could be brought to the University to be cut up by students. Later, with the 1832 Anatomy Act, unclaimed cadavers were also delivered from the workhouse which stood in now-leafy Wellington Square.
In the 19th century, the Clarendon Building on Broad Street became the offices of the Vice Chancellor of the University. Victorian values. University staff were concerned about both the morals of their students – who were still all male – and their sexual health; interactions with the opposite sex were almost entirely with local women and prostitution was rife. Even before the passing of the Contagious Disease Act in 1864, suspected sex workers were apprehended and held in rooms underground until the Vice Chancellor passed sentence. Women simply walking alone could be taken in, subjected to invasive medical examinations, and imprisoned for long periods. It is debatable whether this had any impact on the spread of venereal disease, but raises issues of gender inequality in medical thinking and society at large.
Over the road, the King’s Arms stands, the oldest pub in the city. Looking at its façade, festival visitors are invited to think about the history of inoculation and vaccination. In this hostelry in the late 18th century, to persuade the public to be inoculated against smallpox, doctors set up Saturday lunchtime clinics, inviting them for “a pint and a poke”.
‘The popularity that followed was unfortunately short-lived,’ says Paula Larsson, another of Uncomfortable Oxford’s co-founders. ‘We saw how the recent pandemic brought discussion of vaccines into everyday conversation, and the rapid development, testing, and implementation of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine was a major success in the fight against Covid-19 worldwide. Nonetheless, there were anti-vaccination protests in Oxford and internationally. There was resistance to vaccination in the 19th century, too, both for religious reasons and because early confidence in the smallpox inoculation was shaken when other infections were accidentally introduced due to poor hygiene, or occasional deaths from septicaemia or tetanus infection occurred.
‘Faith in the procedure was also shaken by misinformation and poorly-communicated policy, which appeared to imply that those who chose to be vaccinated would lose their voting rights. Then compulsory vaccination laws and associated record keeping sparked some of the first organised resistance to vaccination because it was seen as a mechanism of state recording and tracking of citizens.
‘Anti-Vaccination Leagues were formed across the country. The first in Oxfordshire was formed in Banbury and Bicester, led by middle-class tradesmen and clergymen, solicitors, and shop-owners. These ‘anti-vacs’,’ continues Paula, ‘lamented that ‘little Banbury’ had learned the lesson, while ‘darker Oxford’ had maintained its vaccination leanings, although residents on St John’s Street, Caroline Street, Aston Street, Walton Well Road and Howard Street were recorded as consistent objectors!’
The tour encompasses more big ideas at the Oxford University Museum of Natural History, for discussion about evolution and the hypothesis that natural selection acts on a population’s fitness in a specific environment, now a keystone of medical science. Sadly, however, as scientists looked for differences between ethnic groups, these 19th-century ideas also spawned racism and eugenics in the early 20th century.
Oxford War Memorial in St Giles sparks conversation about the changing demographics of the city in the First and Second World Wars when The Examination Schools on the High Street, Oxford Town Hall and Somerville College were used as temporary hospitals. ‘Where we see change and trauma, we often see great innovation,’ says Olivia, ‘and there were considerable advances in the field of reconstructive surgery and new ideas around psychological damage. Also, the lack of male students opened the door in 1916 for women to be admitted to the university to study medicine; the start of equality in the medical profession.’
The tour finishes at the Old Radcliffe Infirmary, the building where penicillin was first tested. Although Alexander Fleming is most associated with penicillin, it was an Oxford team who confirmed his findings and produced an effective antibacterial drug which revolutionised life for us all. What would Oxford and the rest of the world look like today without them?
Throughout the Uncomfortable Oxford tours visitors are encouraged to ask questions, to discuss and debate the stories and issues uncovered along the way, so no two tour events are the same. uncomfortableoxford.co.uk
For more information on these and other Oxford Science and Ideas Festival events visit if-oxford.com
An art exhibition – Collateral Effects by bioartist Anna Dumitriu, at The North Wall Arts Centre in Summertown (October 6-29) – investigates the history of medicine through installations. thenorthwall.com
