My year away takes place in an area steeped in culture; from the Roman road on the Eastern frontier to the conveniently placed KFC, my new home is a fascinating and bustling region with lots to be explored. Yet I have become accustomed to the pitying looks of my fellow students when I reveal where I live: “How do you commute?” “Is it safe?” and “WHY?” are frequent, concerned questions thrown at me. I should like to take this opportunity to dispel some myths about living in Cowley, from cuisine to climate, language to locals.
When I say there is a lot to be explored around my new home, I pretty much exclusively mean restaurants. Cowley Road is home to fifty three restaurants, cafés and takeaways that I pass on the fifteen minute walk to my house. Cowley hosts Nepalese cuisine, an American diner, a Nando’s and a sushi bar, so we’re unlikely to go hungry. The area also boasts a wide variety of hairdressers and not one but two questionable-looking ‘adult shops’ (yet to be explored). We might not have a Topshop or the gorgeous architecture of the city centre, but we’ve got a lot of food, good hair and interesting… personal lives. The climate here is cold, particularly when your housemates don’t know how to turn the thermostat on. People walk around in huge (and often shiny) jackets, although it is unknown to me whether they are protecting against the cold or indulging the latest fashions. We tend to commute to places within the city centre for a more temperate and affordable experience, as heating is expensive.
The culture in Cowley came as a massive surprise to me; the Polish supermarket offers a variety of what I assume are Polish foods, and if you’re less adventurous, Tesco has a section for exciting-looking foods from far away as well. But it’s not all about food; we also have a Bangladesh Islamic Centre and Mosque and a Methodist Church, going some way towards illustrating the ethnically diverse population to which Cowley is home. Not content with being figuratively colourful, many of the buildings on the main Cowley Road are adorned with bright and beautiful graffiti art, displaying the wealth of talent that the area has to offer. Cowley is a large contributor to Oxford’s music scene, with venues such as the O2 Academy Oxford and the Art Bar, where events such as Jazz Nights, Itchy Feet and a Chas and Dave performance entertain and enrich us. Finally, we host the annual Cowley Road Carnival featuring music, dancers, ethnic cuisine and a parade which generally attracts around 20,000 people.
The locals are different to those you find walking down Turl Street in their red corduroy trousers of a Sunday even- ing; they shout and they ignore all forms of road safety (cycling can be treacher- ous), but they’re living real lives. I think this may be the thing I value most from my year ‘abroad’; whilst I’m cramming my head full of abstract philosophical ideas, these people are learning life les- sons. In bursting the ‘Oxford bubble’, Cowley has given me a sense of how peo- ple actually live, and what I’m going to be plunged into when I take off my sub fusc and enter the real world.
The sense of community in Cowley is quite a rare phenomenon; residents are more than willing to give up their time to work in the many charity shops or volunteer at the local children’s hospice, our neighbours let us climb over their wall when we’re locked out, and people just generally do nice stuff for one another. People are politically active and are respectful of one another’s culture; people are proud to live here, and now I am too.
So, how do I commute? Grudgingly, on a bike, in the rain, avoiding thousands of buses. Is it safe? It doesn’t offer the warm fuzzy feeling that your college can provide you with, but it’s no less safe than any other of Oxford’s suburbs in reality. And why? I moved here because it’s cheaper and we found a nice house, but I’ve gained so much more than a double bed and some savings. Cowley has offered me some insight into life post-University, the chance to try new things (still haven’t braved the sushi though) and a small amount of experience in living a real life, and it’s one that I’d recommend to anyone who doesn’t mind cleaning their own kitchen.
Love,
Abby
xxxx
