Jericho
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In "His Dark Materials"
Rough part of Oxford, frequented by Gyptians, where Lyra and her friends often play and fight. Jericho is adjacent to the canal, where the Gyptians live on their canal-boats.
In "Lyra's Oxford"
In "Lyra's Oxford," Jericho is home to the "alchemist" Sebastian Makepeace. The witch's dæmon leads Lyra to Makepeace's house, supposedly to help the witch.
In Reality
Jericho is an historic area of the English city of Oxford. Located outside the old city wall, it was originally a place for travellers to rest if they had reached the city after the gates had closed. With backstreets of 1930s terraced housing and many restaurants, it has become a popular location for student accommodation. In the 1950s it was a red light area with a pornography cinema (now the independent Phoenix Cinema).
The Anglo-Catholic church St. Barnabas' is the Church of England parish church in Jericho, next to the Oxford Canal. The Jericho Street Fair is held in mid-June each year, around the feast day of the patron Saint Barnabas (11 June). The Albert Street Chapel (Reformed Baptist) is also in the neighbourhood. The Oxford Oratory, with a shrine for Our Lady of Oxford, is nearby in Woodstock Road.
The Oxford Synagogue (one of the few in England with more than one Jewish denomination worshipping in the same house) and the Oxford Jewish Centre are located in Jericho.
The Oxford University Press and St Sepulchre's Cemetery are located in the area off Walton Street.
Philip Pullman sets parts of his novels Northern Lights and Lyra's Oxford in Jericho. He has been a focal advocate of the residential boaters fight to 'Save the Boatyard' ([1]). British Waterways who want to sell the 160 yr old warf, known as Castlemill Boatyard, are at odds with the Boaters, Jericho residents, Oxford City Council and the people of Oxford, yet they have persisted in closing the yard.
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