These streets, for example

One obvious difference between the two locations is size: Oxford is much larger and more urban. The city center with most of the college buildings is surrounded by miles of ordinary English neighborhoods with homes and businesses on every side. (I've heard people say that Cambridge is a university first and a town second, and Oxford is the other way around.)

But in the city centers, they are a lot alike. These two Cambridge streets—Free School Lane, by the old Cavendish Laboratory, and Trinity Street, home to the college—could easily be plopped down in the middle of Oxford.