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Tracy's Sanctuary Fanfiction Research
The Five's Oxford
Piecing together various pieces of information, including the historical Montague John Druitt attending New College from 1878-1880, Nikola Tesla's disappearance from Graz University of Technology in 1878 and the first women admitted to Oxford in 1878, it is safe to assume that the group met in approximately autumn 1878. We know that Druitt read Classics at New College and that Griffin read Medicine at Univ (cited in the H.G Wells novel, The Invisible Man). We can also assume that Helen attended either St. Anne's or Lady Margaret Hall. You might want to consider James Watson attending Brasenose College, as this was both the college Holmes attended in the film "The Young Sherlock Holmes", and the college at which Peter Wingfield (the actor portraying Watson) read medicine.
This page aims to give a little insight into Oxford, including some history, images and geography for those people who want to write about The Five's years in the city.
Oxford: The City of Dreaming Spires
Oxford is a city that technically lies in south-east England, though on a m
ap it appears dead centre about a quarter of the way up the country. The population is fairly small, there are only about 150,000 inhabitants. Though this is seen as average by UK standards.
A nunnery was built there in the 8th Century by the Saxons, forming the foundation of the city and was granted a charter by Henry II that gave its residents the same rights, exemptions and privileges as those people in London.
The city is best known for its university, which was first formed in 1249 (University College) and whose architecture give it the well known nickname "The City of Dreaming Spires".
Another well known (and important) fact about Oxford is that every period of architecture from the Saxon period is represented in the city.
The rivers running through are the Thames and the Cherwell and the city was granted its charter in 1542.
Women at Oxford
Women were first admitted to Oxford in 1878 as part of St. Anne's College. St. Anne's, though not incorporated by Royal Charter until 1952, was the founding college of the Society of Oxford Home Students. This meant that women could lodge with local families in the Oxford area and attend lectures at the university, though they were not eligable to be granted a degree until 1920.
Lady Margaret Hall and Somerville both opened their doors to female students in 1879 (though Lady Margaret Hall was first established in 1878, it only admitted 9 students that year) and these were the first residential colleges for women at Oxford.
Women, however, were only able to attend those courses organised by the AEW (Association for Promoting the Higher Education of Women) or courses that had agreed with the AEW to allow them audience.
The Association for the Education of Women
When the AEW was formed in June 1878, several notable figures were on the committee, including the master of University (Univ) College, Dr. Bradley, and the warden of Kebel College, Edward Stuart Talbot. Talbot insisted on an Anglican college for women and so the two parties split, the latter forming LMH (Lady Margaret Hall) along with Elizabeth Wordsworth, and the former going on to create Somerville College.
Lady Margaret Hall
Lady Margaret Hall was founded by Dame Elizabeth Wordsworth, great-niece of the poet, 
in 1878. The original nine students were all Anglican, which led to Somerville being opened as a secular option the following year.
The college is best known for its expansive grounds and gardens which cover 12 acres of land and is situated in the north of Oxford, on the banks of the River Cherwell.
NEW! To see pictures of Old Hall, LMH's first building, visit my new page!
St. Anne's College
St. Anne's was originally part of the "Association for the Education of Women" (later the Association for Promoting the Higher Education of Women, though retaining the acronym AEW). It operated by placing women with local families and allowing them access to certain agreed courses, rather than having grounds of its own. St. Anne's first building - Hartland House - was started in 1937.
Somerville College 
Somerville College was created as a non-Anglican alternative to Lady Margaret Hall and first opened its doors to students in 1879. At the time of its foundation, it was known as Somerville Hall, named after Mary Somerville, a well-known Scottish mathmatician.
New College
New College was the known college of Montague John Druitt from 1878-1880.
The official name of this college is "The College of St. Mary" but as this was also the official name of Oriel College, which is older, it became known as "The New College of St. Mary" and then shortened to just "New College".
New College was founded in 1379 by William of Wykeham. The same man created Winchester College, the famous public school for boys, which he originally imagined to be a feeder school for New College. The two were going to be schools to train the 
clergy, after the plague wiped out so many priests.
New College was the first for undergraduates and also the first college to have tutorials taught by senior students.
Architecturally, the college is built around a quad, and was the first college to be designed in this way. The old city wall is part of the college grounds and Wykeham promised to preserve it as part of the agreement to build the college. To this day, the Mayor of Oxford walks the wall every three years to make sure that the promise has been upheld.
New College's motto is "Manners Makyth Man" and is very unusual for the sheer fact that it is in English rather than Latin. Furthermore, it goes against every tradition of birth, money and knowledge being important in life. It is one's behaviour that matters most.
Notes on Education (Written with dkscully on Livejournal)
A little note on Oxford and university life.
Firstly, New College is not new. It was founded in the 1300s, but shares its official name (St. Mary's College) with another Oxford College. Therefore it became known as New College (The New College of St. Mary).
Next, one doesn't "study" a subject at Oxford, one "reads" a subject at Oxford. Oxford and Cambridge are pretty much the only universities at which one still uses such terminology. But it's an important distinction that is an instant giveaway to any Brit.
That's all I'm going to say on the subject for now.
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A couple of other notes about British education terminology...
There were nine schools specifically defined as "public schools" by the Public Schools Act of 1868. More were added in 1869 and 1871. Winchester College is one of the original nine, however.
Also, one "goes up" to Oxford and Cambridge to "read" a subject (regardless of where you're coming from), and, if you're is expelled for bad behaviour, you get "sent down".
I'm a huge geek about this sort of thing. I kicked off a scarily huge debate in the X Files fandom back in the mid-90s when I complained that Mulder couldn't just go to Oxford and study er... Psychology, iirc. He'd have to be a member of a college and there were only n colleges who accepted students for his subject, etc. ;-)
Also, my alma mater is the oldest girl's grammar school in the country, but this doesn't make it a public school, by strict definition, just an independent school. So I learned how to argue/explain that one too.
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Oh... the old Fox Mulder thing *Cringes* You know, I'm already convinced that my fic has too many holes in it because I can't find enough information on Oxford in the 19th century. I know that New College offered classics (because it historically took Winchester boys, who until 1860ish only took classics) and that all women in 1878/9 would have been in one of two colleges (Lady Margaret Hall and I can't remember the other... St. Hilda's, maybe?), but I just arbitrarily assigned colleges to the other three characters and hoped for the best!
I do remember the Mulder and Oxford thing. I've read far too many fics on the subject where it hasn't been properly researched.
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Hilda's certainly was an all women's college. (I have a friend whose college it was while she read Classics.)
Unfortunately, it wasn't founded until 1893 - http://www.st-hildas.ox.ac.uk/index.p
Aha! Wikipedia provides, again. ;-)
"Women entered the university for the first time in 1878, becoming members of the University (and thus eligible to receive degrees) in 1920. Women's colleges before integration included Somerville College, St Anne's, St. Hugh's, and Lady Margaret Hall. All colleges are now co-educational. St.Hilda's decided to accept male members at all levels from 2008."
A quick check says that St Anne's was the very first, and Somerville and LMH followed.
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Interesting. I was looking at college information a few weeks back and read that St. Anne's and LMH opened at the same time. I would go back and change it, but I'm not quite that anal. Plus there's one complete "never would have happened in real life" moment that relies on the idea of the college building being empty and not yet open to the public. So I'll run with it.
Thank you for the information, though. I knew St. Hilda's was wrong when I said it... I just couldn't remember which one it was because I just picked LMH and ran with it.