The web was invented by someone whose first computer was rubbish
- Berners-Lee graduated here, 1976
- A computer from a broken TV
- University spinouts
- An innovation district
How Oxford grew
The short version, in order. Pick a year.
Tim Berners-Lee graduates
He took a first in physics at The Queen’s College, then spent his spare time soldering an M6800 processor to a discarded television to make himself a computer.
A soldering iron and a discarded television
Tim Berners-Lee took a first in physics at The Queen’s College, Oxford, graduating in 1976. He chose physics rather than computing, then spent his spare time building a computer anyway — soldering together an M6800 processor, some TTL gates, a broken television for a screen and, by several accounts, a car battery.
Thirteen years later he wrote the proposal that became the World Wide Web. He returned to Oxford in 2016, joining the Department of Computer Science.
The detail worth keeping is the improvisation. The web was invented by somebody whose first computer was made of things other people had thrown away.
What that means if you trade in Oxford
Oxford is expensive, compact and full of institutions, which means a lot of local trade is done with organisations rather than households: colleges, labs, publishers, spin-outs.
It is also a city where overclaiming is noticed instantly. Precision reads as competence here in a way that enthusiasm does not.
What Oxford businesses ask us for
Institutional or domestic
Invoicing a college and quoting a household are different businesses. Write for the one you want.
Be exact
Say what is included, what is not and what it costs. Ambiguity is read as evasion.
Access and parking
Getting to a job in central Oxford is genuinely hard. Customers appreciate being told you have thought about it.
The tech scene here
Oxford’s technology economy runs on spinouts. Oxford University Innovation exists to turn research into companies, and the university is among the most prolific sources of them in Europe — heavily weighted towards life sciences, quantum and AI rather than consumer software.
The physical side is spread across several innovation districts: Begbroke Science Park to the north, which the university owns outright and where around thirty companies sit alongside university research groups, plus development at Headington and along the western corridor.
For a smaller business it is worth knowing that a lot of local buying is institutional — colleges, the university, the hospitals — and those buyers check what they are looking at.
How well do you know Oxford?
Five quick questions. Get all five right and you win a 10% off discount code for your website. Every answer is somewhere on this page, so have a read if you get stuck.
Oxford quiz · 1 of 5
What did Tim Berners-Lee study at Oxford?
Common questions
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