Matthew Arnold (1822-88) was familiar with this view from East of the city of Oxford and his poem, Thyrsis included the phrase dreaming spires.

Oxford from Boars Hill

How changed is here each spot man makes or fills!
In the two Hinkseys nothing keeps the same;
The village-street its haunted mansion lacks,
And from the sign is gone Sibylla’s name,
And from the roofs the twisted chimney-stacks.
Are ye too changed, ye hills?
See, ’tis no foot of unfamiliar men
To-night from Oxford up your pathway strays!
Here came I often, often, in old days;
Thyrsis and I; we still had Thyrsis then.

Runs it not here, the track by Childsworth Farm,
Up past the wood, to where the elm-tree crowns
The hill behind whose ridge the sunset flames?
The Signal-Elm, that looks on Ilsley Downs,
The Vale, the three lone wears, the youthful Thames?—
This winter-eve is warm,
Humid the air; leafless, yet soft as spring,
The tender purple spray on copse and briers;
And that sweet City with her dreaming spires
She needs not June for beauty’s heightening,

Lovely all times she lies, lovely to-night.


The distant view will have changed slightly and you may notice an incongruous red building that is a recent addition.

I have taken a picture of this red building from the other side of the Thames at Grandpont.

Looking through Friars Wharf houses