There are a variety of street nutters in Oxford.
There's an elderly ex-professor who had a nervous breakdown. She will wander outside only wearing her bra, in order to:
a) pray to the heavens
b) ask you if you've let the lord into your life
c) tidy up the crucifix painted on her front door

There's a homeless fellow with dreadlocks, who clearly hasn't seen a bath for decades. I say dreadlocks, but I mean one large dreadlock which looks a bit like a dead beaver from a distance... I've never managed to get closer as one whiff from about 100 paces will cause anyone to lose their lunch. I'm actually not exaggerating.

There's "London's #1 Street Entertainer".... a guy who tries to tap dance to a portable boombox (but really just gently hops from one foot to the other), and who has no idea where he is, but appears to believe he's somewhere in Central London.

But the best one is the crazy alcoholic lady who marauds High Street. She produces a general ambiance of profane abuse, freestyle, and interacts with passers by in the most entertaining ways;
1) She tries to trip pedestrians over.
2) She takes running leaps at passing cyclists to knock them off their bikes.
3) She'll get on a bus and demand that the driver turns it around and take her the opposite direction. When he inevitably refuses she will spend a minute trying to get into his perspex cage, and then give up and get off the bus. She will do this with many consecutive buses.
4) She climbs onto kebab vans and refuses to get down. Or, if they stop her from getting on top, she'll rummage in a bin to find half an old kebab, and throw it at the proprietor.
5) She is arrested, almost daily. Every time I have witnessed this (about 5 times) she has been literally clawing at the windows and bellowing random swear words... not at the police officers, but the passing public whose attention she has attracted.

Edit: Any, or all of these people may have died in the decade since I lived there, but I have no doubt the city will find suitable replacements.
(eViLegion Chief Commissioner of the Scottish Lunacy Board, Mon 13 Jul 2015, 14:33, 4 replies)

Was the crazy alcoholic lady
quite fat, with short dark hair?

I remember her well if so (was there about the same time). The fact someone who was so clearly mentally ill and a danger to themselves was able to always just be wandering around the city was quite scary, in hindsight.

I once saw her do a shit in a phone box.
(SnowyTheWereRabbit the Leporid from Hell, Mon 13 Jul 2015, 14:55, closed)

Could be the same one.
I doubt there are that many people in Oxford who terrorise passers by with such unrelenting vigour. Her hair was quite unkempt and dark... no idea if that was it's natural colour though as I always assumed she was homeless.

If she isn't dead, she must surely be confined somewhere for everyone's safety.

I'm not especially proud of this, but I had a High Street view from my room, as did many of my friends, and we would text each other "She's back!" so that no-one would miss out on the cabaret. Seeing people kicked off bikes while they're commuting is genuinely priceless.
(eViLegion Chief Commissioner of the Scottish Lunacy Board, Mon 13 Jul 2015, 14:57, closed)

There was a guy I remember as well
who was a really aggressive, crusty looking beggar with a load of face jewellery. Used to be really abusive if people didn't give him money.

I was sat in a friend's lounge on Cowley Road once and watched him walk up the drive of the house opposite and go in with a key. They confirmed that they saw him all the time and he seemed to live there.
(SnowyTheWereRabbit the Leporid from Hell, Mon 13 Jul 2015, 15:24, closed)

That might be the guy who harassed me at the cash machine one time.
Having asked if I could spare any change (which I could not), he then looked over my shoulder and somewhat threateningly pointed out that the number on the screen was in the thousands.

I pointed out that the letters after it were 'DR', which meant that given he had no money at all he was actually richer than me.
(eViLegion Chief Commissioner of the Scottish Lunacy Board, Mon 13 Jul 2015, 17:32, closed)