Explore the real-world places that appear in What We Can Know by Ian McEwan. Each location on the map shows what happens there in the novel, the real history of the place, and what's there today. Featured locations include The Blundys' Dinner House (North Oxford), Bodleian Library, Radcliffe Camera, Sheldonian Theatre, Blackwell's Bookshop and 6 more.
Norham Gardens area — Setting for the 2014 birthday dinner, mapped to a real-world equivalent
In 2014, the celebrated poet Francis Blundy hosts a candlelit dinner for close friends and colleagues to honor his wife Vivien's birthday. Much wine is drunk and a delicious meal eaten before Francis reads aloud his new poem, 'A Corona for Vivien'. No copy of the poem is ever found, and the evening becomes the mystery that obsesses later scholars. The house is fictional, so this pin marks a plausible real-world equivalent in a leafy academic district of Oxford.
North Oxford was developed in the mid-19th century as a suburb of large Victorian villas for married dons and professionals. Its streets, such as Norham Gardens, have long housed university academics, writers, and intellectuals.
The area remains an elegant residential district of large houses, many owned by Oxford colleges or private families. It can be admired from the street, but the homes are private.
Broad Street — The archive-hunter's natural home
In 2119, the lonely scholar Thomas Metcalfe searches the surviving archives of the early twenty-first century for traces of 'A Corona for Vivian'. Letters, diaries, recordings, and digital fragments from Blundy's circle become his raw material. As he pieces them together, he finds a clue that points toward the poem and exposes a story of entangled loves and a brutal crime. The Bodleian stands in for the kind of archive in which such a hunt would take place.
The Bodleian was founded in 1602 by Sir Thomas Bodley and is one of the oldest libraries in Europe. It has been a legal deposit library since 1610, collecting a copy of nearly everything published in Britain.
The Bodleian is a working research library, and its historic Divinity School and Library spaces are open to visitors on guided tours. Only registered readers may use the reading rooms.
Visit: Bodleian Library (library)
Radcliffe Square — Heart of the scholarly city
The domed reading room is a fitting image of the scholarly world Thomas Metcalfe inhabits in 2119, a world of research looking back on an abundant lost age. Its enclosed square evokes the quiet study through which he pores over the era's records. It is a thematic stand-in for the academic institutions at the center of the novel's search.
Designed by James Gibbs and completed in 1749, the Radcliffe Camera was funded by the physician John Radcliffe's bequest. It is England's first circular library and a masterpiece of English Palladian architecture.
The building serves as a reading room for the Bodleian Library and is open to readers only. Radcliffe Square, however, is open to all and is among Oxford's most photographed spots.
Visit: Radcliffe Camera (landmark)
Broad Street — Ceremonial Oxford
Oxford's literary and ceremonial life is the backdrop for the world of poets and academics that Francis Blundy belongs to in 2014. Such an institution suits the public honors, readings, and reputations that make his lost poem so significant to later generations. This pin is thematic rather than a scene named in the book.
Designed by Christopher Wren and completed in 1669, the Sheldonian was built for university ceremonies. It is also used for concerts and lectures.
The Sheldonian is open to visitors for much of the year and hosts concerts and graduation ceremonies. Its cupola offers views over the city's spires.
Visit: Sheldonian Theatre (theater)
Broad Street — A literary meeting place
For a poet like Francis Blundy and the circle of friends and colleagues around his table, a famous bookshop like this represents the literary culture of 2014. The novel's concern with books, poems, and the written record gives this pin thematic weight. It is a stand-in for the literary scene the later scholar tries to reconstruct.
Blackwell's was founded in 1879 by Benjamin Henry Blackwell. Its Norrington Room, opened in 1966, holds one of the largest displays of books for sale in one room in the world.
Blackwell's remains a thriving bookshop and a destination for readers, with a large poetry and academic selection.
Visit: Blackwell's Main Bookshop (landmark)
Beaumont Street — Keeper of relics
Thomas Metcalfe's work in 2119 treats a vanished age as an archaeologist treats relics. The Ashmolean's collection of artifacts from lost civilizations echoes that perspective. The pin is thematic and shows how a drowned world is studied through what remains.
Founded in 1683, the Ashmolean is the oldest public museum in Britain and the oldest in the world to be attached to a university. Its present neoclassical building dates from 1845.
The museum houses art and archaeology from across the world and is free to enter. It is one of Oxford's most visited attractions.
Visit: Ashmolean Museum (museum)
North Oxford — Floodplain of the Thames
In the novel's 2119, the south of England is waterlogged after rising seas, and low-lying land like this floodplain is the first to be lost. The meadow's ancient open grassland shows what a drowned future landscape has overtaken. It stands for the richness of the world that Thomas Metcalfe and his generation mourn.
Port Meadow has been common pasture for over a thousand years and is mentioned in the Domesday Book. It floods regularly in winter and has never been ploughed.
Port Meadow is a public open space where horses and cattle still graze. It is popular for walking, birdwatching, and wild swimming, and the Thames Path runs beside it.
Visit: Port Meadow (park)
South of the city center — Meeting of the Thames and Cherwell
The meadow's riverside paths represent the pleasures of walking and talking among friends that Thomas Metcalfe envies in 2014's easy freedoms. Its position beside rivers also shows how close the water is to the city in a drowned future. It is a thematic location within the novel's dual timeline.
The meadow has belonged to Christ Church college since the 16th century and has been used for grazing and recreation. Broad Walk, its central avenue, has been a promenade for centuries.
The meadow is open to the public and is a popular walking route with views of Christ Church and the rivers.
Visit: Christ Church Meadow (park)
Abingdon Road — The river at the city's edge
The Thames is central to the flooded world of 2119, where rising seas have submerged much of the west. This bridge marks the river's edge as the water that defines Thomas Metcalfe's southern England. The pin is thematic of that waterlogged future.
A bridge has stood here since the 10th century, and the present Folly Bridge dates from 1827. Friar Bacon's study was once located on the old bridge.
The bridge carries the road south from the city center. Punts, rowing boats, and river cruises depart from nearby moorings.
Visit: Folly Bridge (landmark)
Botley Road — Gateway to a changing landscape
The station is a point of arrival and departure from the city, and a reminder of the travel and mobility that the people of 2014 take for granted. By 2119, such journeys are curtailed by flooding and lost infrastructure. The pin is thematic of the contrast between the two eras.
The first station at Oxford opened in 1844, and the present building dates from 1852 with later extensions. It lies near the floodplain of the Thames, which has repeatedly flooded the surrounding streets.
Oxford station is a busy hub with direct trains to London Paddington and the Midlands. It is next to the area of Botley Road that floods in wet winters.
West of Oxford — Ancient woodland above the floodplain
The wooded hill above the Thames valley evokes the natural world whose richness the narrator of 2119 mourns. In the drowned future, high ground like this would matter as land that survives the waters. The pin is thematic rather than a named scene.
Wytham Woods was given to the University of Oxford in 1942 and is one of the most studied woodlands in the world. Research there includes long-term studies of birds and climate.
The woods are managed by the university as a research site and are open to the public by permit. They are known for their bluebells in spring.
Visit: Wytham Woods (park)
More by Ian McEwan: The Comfort of Strangers locations map · Atonement locations map · Amsterdam locations map · All Ian McEwan books
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