- Oxford
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United Kingdom
It is astonishing to come across acharming and friendly inn off a highway between Lechlade and Burford and have the most memorable pub lunch of chicken liver and brandy pate and a yellowfin tuna nicoise that didn't taste of dishwater, and all on a Monday after visiting William Morris's house at Kelmscott (which was closed, so we needed cheering up, and got it). The most beautiful village of old houses made of sublime Cotswold Stone - walks, woollen mills, beautiful things to buy, heaven - we will stay here next time- Tadeus Pfeifer, Basel
Filkins, Oxfordshire - website
thefivealls.co.uk/
Coven II is a underground drum and bass club in just outside Oxford's city center. It used to be a gay club until it closed at the end of the 80s. It was then refurbished and reopened as Coven II in the late 90s and has since been the best D&B club in the south of England. Not only is the building perfect; a ground floor and basement with balconies around the basement from the first floor, a pedestal for DJs raised around 15 feet off the floor, an eight foot sub-woofer located on the dancefloor and seating ares located in small caves in the wall. Recent huge acts to play there include Shy FX, Skepta, Mampi swift, Pendulum, Baraka, Skinny Man, as well as local MCs such as MC Choppa, MC Addict and MC TYG.
As well as a weekend saturday night Kinetic night, there is also a weekly gay night which has even attracted interest from MTV, and a Thursday student night with a different theme each week, including foam parties (with foam often reaching as high as the roof of the basement) snow parties, water fights (with over 2000 water guns provided) and fancy dress nights. There is also a thriving bar, as well as the main dance floor and smaller dance floor, and also an outside smoking area with heater lights and perfectly comfy seating. As well as being within five minutes of the city center and the Oxford train station, it is also just around the corner from a taxi rank. It can also be booked out for private parties regularly and the staff are all extremely outgoing and friendly, and will often get involved with the fun. That is why I recommend Coven II as one of the best nights out in the whole of the country.
Oxpens road, Oxford.
A beautifully imposing converted church on Walton Street, this is a student treat which somehow makes you feel as if you are in on a secret.
It's not too done up, has a lovely long zinc bar, and serves strong cocktails and proper pizzas.
Plus there is seating out the front to people watch.
119 Walton St
Oxford, OX2 6AH
01865 311171
The Gardener's Arms is a vegetarian pub in Oxford. It is situated in the Jericho, a picturesque part of the city, and has a large beer garden which is great in the summer. The food is good pub fare and all veggie.
This theatre company is an exciting organisation set up to give touring experience to gap year students and recent graduates.
I've seen all three of their productions so far - Talking Heads, Canterbury Tales and Aesop's Fables, and the standard is seriously high, especially given how young and inexperienced they are. Their productions are simple, relying on well-acted plays rather than fancy effects and costumes, and are well worth a look.
The Trout is so well known around Oxford that it hardly needs any recommendation. This cavernous pub can be found in Wolvercote, north of Oxford.
The Trout serves great food (minted lamb shanks are my recommendation), though it gets very full at the beginning and end of Oxford terms. Most of all it's the atmosphere that people come for - cosy inside in Autumn and Winter, and a large outdoor terrace in Spring and Summer.
It has a history which encompasses Henry II, Alice in Wonderland and Colin Dexter of Inspector Morse fame! It can be reached by car (a large free car park indicates how popular it can get), but far better to walk all the way up Port Meadow to the very top, by which point you will deserve your lunch thoroughly.
members.lycos.co.uk/troutinn/info.htm
195 Godstow Road, Lower Wolvercote, Oxford
A cocktail bar and Slovakian restaurant located in the St Clements area of Oxford. Moya is smooth and sophisticated, yet the food is homely, warming and seems authentically Slovakian. Enjoy the venison in a red wine sauce, the sausages, and the goulash, and also the bellinis, manhattans and mojitos.
St Clements is at the far end of the High Street, but Moya is worth the expedition.
www.moya-oxford.co.uk
97 St. Clement's Street, Oxford, OX4 1AR
Tel: 01865 200111
Maison Blanc is part of Raymond Blanc's culinary empire but this Oxford cafe is the original. A small patisserie, boulangerie and cafe at the top of St Giles, it is perfect for Saturday morning breakfasts or cake and coffee. Everything is beautiful and scrumptious, from the almond croissant to the tarte au citron and the pain rustique. It is also surprisingly family friendly and we always see toddlers in here.
3 Woodstock Road, at the corner of Little Clarendon Street.
Tel: 01865 510 974
www.maisonblanc.co.uk/oxford.html
George and Davis' is situated on Little Clarendon Street in Jericho. It is something of an Oxford institution with quirky cow-themed pictures on the walls and a studenty appeal. It serves great ice cream in an array of wonderful (and sometimes weird) flavours and customers can start a petition for a flavour of their own design
to be made. If 30 signatures are collected the management will consider making it.
The cafe also serves great pizza bagels for those who need a savoury snack. It is open until midnight and, although there are plenty of students in term-time, it's worth making a visit.
G&Ds Ice Cream Cafe, Little Clarendon Street.
01865 516652
Creation Theatre Company are renowned in Oxford for combining fantastic open air settings with engaging performances; a fantastic way to spend a summer evening. They are currently showing Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice at Oxford Castle and Macbeth and Robin Hood at Headington Hill Park.
Tickets can be booked through the Box Office on 01865 766 266 or via the website www.creationtheatre.co.uk
Because it's frustrating, annoying, funny, challenging, embarassing and satisfying all at the same time. You are guaranteed comedy, even when you can't row and your lovely lovely is laughing at you banging into punts and other rowers or thinking of ways to sink American and Italian tourists who have no river etiquette. A great, great day out.
The Cherwood Boathouse: Bardwell Road, Oxford;
tel: 01865 515 978;
email: Email: info@cherwellboathouse.co.uk;
www.cherwellboathouse.co.uk/punt.html
This new attraction located within the D-Wing of the former prison, is a fantastic introduction to the history of Oxford - (the city not the University) - and the stories of some of the Prison's former inmates.
As you walk through the tiny cells and atmospheric prison corridors, you hear all about the real people and events from the site’s turbulent past: the first Oxford teachings, the owners, visionaries, activists and inmates.
People like Marshall William Smith, the King’s prison keeper, who in the 1600s made Oxford Prison as feared and as notorious as Colditz; Mary Blandy a convicted murderess, who became an 18th-century celebrity; Jack Ketch, the public executioner and the man on which the Punch & Judy hangman character was modelled; and Anne Green, who survived her own hanging and narrowly escaped being anatomised by an Oxford medical student in 1650!
After your tour of the Prison there is the chance to climb the 101 narrow steps of the Saxon St George's Tower and enjoy the spectacular 360 degree panoramic views of the Oxford skyline.
Oxford Castle, (off New Road), Oxford, OX1 1AY
T: 01865 260666
www.oxfordcastleunlocked.co.uk
A B&B just to the south of Oxford city centre (a 10-15 minute walk). It’s clean, comfortable and decent value - all too rare in this city. It's not particular beautiful but it's close to the river, colleges, shops etc and does the job at a good price (singles from £40, doubles from £54).
118 Abingdon Road, Oxford, OX1 4PZ; tel: 01865 244725
Saffron is a good restaurant serving French/Indian food. It's a little bit out of town in the suburb of Summertown but well worth a short taxi ride.
Banbury Road, Oxford
Even cities with a cultural standing as magnificent as Oxford have their sleazy little corners. Not much bigger than the inside of a bus, Downtown Manhattan's is the cheesy dive where no-one wants to end up but everyone always does.
3 George Street; tel: 01865 721101; proximity usually indicated by a trail of pavement pizzas
Jericho is an area just a brief walk from Oxford, but feels a million miles away - great shops (especially the antique places, and charity shops) a few bar's (Branca - they serve menabrea beer which is one of the world's best), fish restuarants, bookshops, deli's, cafe's and of course the Jericho pub AND a cinema - independent of course.
All you need is a Tom Baker scarf and a bike and you'll fit it. Great place to have a wander and see what Oxford life is like...
Jericho, Oxford.
An archaeological/ethnographic museum. The collection ranges from the unique to the common; the practical to the absurd. It's the only museum I can think of where one can see a opium pipe made of a Worcester sauce bottle, a lantern made of a blowfish, and a witch in a bottle.
www.prm.ox.ac.uk/
Parks Road, Oxford
Oxford has had a market for hundreds of years, and it is still thriving. Now there are more and more coffee-shops and upmarket retailers, but still just about enough butchers and fresh produce stalls to keep it interesting. Don't miss Brown's Cafe, where they make tea in proper teapots, with leaves, not bags. The rock cakes are good, too.
Accessible from High Street, Cornmarket Street and Market Street Map and virtual tour at: www.chem.ox.ac.uk/oxfordtour/coveredmarket/
Get up early enough on 1 May and you're in for a riot of English tradition at its best. Revellers from the previous night's balls join city folk, morris dancers and tourists to listen to the eerie Hymnus Eucharisticus that echoes from the choirboys who ascend Magdalen Tower for the occasion. Meanwhile, the drunker and more foolhardy of the students (often dressed in black tie) leap from Magdalen bridge into the murky waters of the river Cherwell below.
Outside Magdalen college tower, High Street near the Plain roundabout.
From the outside, this is a big bookshop. Wait till you go inside. Downstairs they've cut a football-pitch sized cavern into the earth and filled it with a bewildering variety of literature. Let someone know you're going in case you can't find your way out.
48-51 Broad Street Tel: +44-1865-792792
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