On Wed 11 Apr 2012, Owen McKnight owen.mcknight@gmail.com wrote:
To follow up my own post, I thought of two other candidates for the central area:
- the OX1 postcode area: http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?q=OX1
- Carfax & Holywell council wards:
http://www.oxford.gov.uk/Direct/SOAProfilesHolywellandCarfaxWards.pdf as well as the city walls: http://www.headington.org.uk/oxon/city_wall/
The OX1 postcode has a useful northern boundary including the University Parks but excluding Jericho. It also includes the railway station. To the south, it's less use, as it includes all of Abingdon Road and even Boars Hill.
Boars Hill is clearly *not* 'central' in any sense! It wasn't even central when we lived near it in Botley! Also my feeling is that if we wanted to find everything in OX1, that ought to be possible from the actual postcodes rather than adding a locale... :-}
(Is that possible? Can you say "show me all the things with an OX1 postcode"? I know you could search for OX1, but presumably that would also find OX13 etc.)
The two central council wards together exclude the railway station; the River Cherwell is an eastern boundary and the railway line part of the western boundary.
I would agree that the station *isn't* central (at least it never feels like it's central when I have to walk there).
The council wards seem a fairly sensible area, but I think if we're going to tie 'central' to an objective criterion (which I approve of, as it minimises wrangling) I'd rather it was the city walls than ward boundaries. Not sure why, just a sort of irrational feeling that history is better than politics. YES I KNOW. :-}
Jx