Moving to Oxford Guide
Arriving in the UK -Travelling to Oxford
For overseas visitors arriving at the London Heathrow or Gatwick, a very effective bus service runs from the airport (every 30 minutes during the daytime or hourly at night) to Oxford. Details on the Oxford Bus website. Connections by bus from other London airports, such as Stansted take a lot longer and involve a change of bus in London.
You may prefer to get a taxi, from Heathrow, of course. These cost around £80 (2006 price) if booked in advance. The journey usually takes between 1 hour and 90 minutes depending on the traffic.
There are regular trains from Heathrow to London Paddington, and then from Paddington to Oxford. Trains from Gatwick airport arrive at London Victoria station and you then need to cross the city to Paddington for your connection to Oxford.
Settling in
Visitors from some countries are required to register with the police once they are in Oxford. The main police station is on St Aldates, one of the main roads leading out of the centre of the city. This was, according to one recent visitor, "not a complicated matter, but time consuming, and financially costly, if I remember it correctly."
Please note that the Oxford University Newcomers Club has an equipment store where newcomers can buy second-hand goods. This ranges from linen, kitchen utensils, toys, electrical goods, cots etc. (When you leave Oxford you can then take the goods back - and anything else you might like to sell - depending on the condition of the goods and their re-saleability). The Oxford University Newcomers' Club is run by volunteers. Their aim is to help newly-arrived visiting scholars, wives, husbands or partners of members of the University to settle down and to give them the opportunity to meet people in Oxford. They run a range of social activities, hold meetings for wives/ husbands/partners each Wednesday morning during term time, and have a parent and baby/toddler group too. We also have some emergency supplies of bedding and crockery at ECI thanks to the generosity of a previous visitor. Contact Silke.Zahrir@eci.ox.ac.uk for details.
Time difference
You may or may not be aware that British Summer Time still exists. In late March clocks in the UK, move forward one hour and in late October they go back one hour, returning to Greenwich Mean Time. This means an hour less sleep in March (unless you have small children, in which case you wake at the same time anyway!) and an hour more in October for the childfree!
Finding a doctor/dentist
The UK provides free healthcare for everyone. Just pop into your local doctor's surgery once you have found a permanent address, to fill out a registration form. One colleague advised that you need to do this shortly after arrival, as they were refused NHS care, having failed to register on arrival in Oxford. You don't need to take anything with you, although they will ask you for a brief medical history. Click to visit a list of local doctors. If you have a college affiliation, colleges will help too.
Finding a dentist is more of a challenge. There are some dentists who offer care under the National Health Service, but this is still not free. You have to pay 60% of the charges, and may not be offered the same level of service as private patients. St John’s practice in St Johns Street (Ox 515967) was accepting new National Health patients until recently, though you have to be in the UK for more than 6 months to qualify. You can also pay as a private patient, or you can join an insurance scheme. Denplan is a popular one, or HSA offer an interesting scheme which pays back a portion of your dental charges, also physiotherapy and opticians fees for a year. Any dentist will have details.
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