Sheldonian Theatre in Oxford

You're standing at the Sheldonian Theatre, right in the centre of Oxford, just off Broad Street. Start with its shape. One side is straight, the other is curved, a bit like a letter D. That's no accident. Christopher Wren based his design on the Theatre of Marcellus in ancient Rome, which he knew from a sixteenth-century engraving. It was only his second building, and a sharp break from the Gothic style you see all over Oxford.