Alice in Wonderland: Oxford and Christ Church

On 25 April 1856 Charles Dodgson, the Christ Church mathematician better known as Lewis Carroll, was photographing the cathedral when he met the family of Henry Liddell, Dean of Christ Church. Alice Liddell, the fourth of the Dean's ten children, would become the model for Wonderland's heroine. The cathedral is also the chapel of Christ Church, so the church and the college share one site. Step inside to stand where the friendship began.

Visitor guidance: Check Christ Church's visiting hours and ticketing before you go.

Carroll lived at Christ Church for most of his life as a scholar and teacher, and the college is the setting for a small part of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. Wolsey's Great Quadrangle, crowned by the gate-tower Christopher Wren designed, is the courtyard at the heart of that world. One reading of the book holds that the Dodo is Carroll and Wonderland is Oxford. Critics dispute it, but the college is the best place to test the idea for yourself.

Visitor guidance: Christ Church charges admission for visitors; check opening times first.

Wonderland began here. On 4 July 1862 Carroll and the Reverend Robinson Duckworth rowed up the river Isis with the three Liddell girls: Lorina, Alice and Edith. The journey began at Folly Bridge, and during the trip Carroll told a story that he described in his diary as Alice's Adventures Under Ground and later wrote out for Alice. The stone bridge itself was erected in 1825 to 1827, so it is the same crossing the rowers pushed off from.

Visitor guidance: Folly Bridge is south of Christ Church, on the Abingdon Road.

The boat trip ended five miles upstream at Godstow, and Carroll often brought Alice and her sisters Edith and Lorina back here for river trips and picnics. Godstow Abbey was built here starting in 1133, and close to Godstow Bridge stands the 17th-century Trout Inn beside the Thames. The pin marks the bridge rather than any one picnic spot, since the picnics are not tied to a single place.

Location precision: The book names no picnic spot; the pin marks Godstow Bridge near the village.

Visitor guidance: The Trout Inn and Godstow Bridge are on the Thames north-west of Oxford.

Carroll and the Liddell children visited the Botanic Garden often in the 1860s, and like many Oxford places it fed into the Wonderland stories. Founded in 1621, it is the oldest botanic garden in Great Britain. Its waterlily house can be seen in the background of Sir John Tenniel's illustration of the Queen's Croquet-Ground. Visit to look for the glasshouse that Tenniel drew behind the Queen's game.

Visitor guidance: The waterlily house is among the glasshouses; check opening times.

Carroll was a regular visitor to this museum, and a 1651 painting of a dodo by the Flemish artist Jan Savery is likely to have influenced the Dodo in the book. In Chapter 3 Carroll is caricatured as the Dodo. The museum holds the only soft-tissue dodo specimen anywhere in the world, a head and a leg. The painting is on display too.

Visitor guidance: The dodo remains and the Savery painting are on show on Parks Road.

Opposite Christ Church stands 83 St Aldate's, where Alice Liddell used to buy sweets. Carroll featured the shop as the Old Sheep Shop in Through the Looking-Glass, Chapter 5, where Alice finds an old Sheep sitting in an arm-chair knitting behind the counter. Alice exclaims, Well, this is the very queerest shop I ever saw! Today it is a gift shop selling Alice gifts, souvenirs and memorabilia.

Visitor guidance: It is a gift shop on St Aldate's, directly across from Christ Church.