Oxford

This city is fresh in my mind after having spent a day there just recently. I’ve visited Oxford many times over the years. It’s a place that strikes you from the moment you get there. The buildings are grand and strong and beautiful and there’s a story for each one it feels. I will try to do it justice but there’s so much to say and you really do have to be there and feel it for yourself to understand just how lovely it is. Plus I will say if you go there for a day trip, I’d suggest picking your theme. I’ve themed my day trips by shopping and pubs, river trip and sightseeing. It’s hard to fit everything in in one go. You can get there easily by train, just a few minutes walk to the centre or if driving, make use of the many park and rides that surround the city, helping to divert the traffic out. There are car parks in the city but be prepared to sit in traffic jams!

Oxford itself was founded in Saxon times and went on to become a town that flourished, having a mint with 4 coin makers. It became a manufacturing town in the 12-13th centuries, notably in cloth and leather, as well as clay and wool. It’s good to talk about the Oxford / Cambridge divide and where that originated from. Taken from the pages of historic-uk.com, we learn that The University of Oxford is one of the oldest in England, and was first mentioned in the 12th century. Back then, it wasn’t a university in the sense that we know it, and was more linked to the church, producing clergymen. It’s inhabitants rapidly expanded in 1167, with Henry II banned English students from attending the University in Paris after a quarrel with Thomas Beckett. The returning students/clergymen settled in Oxford and drama unfolded when, in 1209, a student fled the city after allegedly murdering his mistress. This caused the citizens of the town to retaliate by hanging two students! With riots then erupting, some of the students fled to nearby Cambridge to escape the hostility and thus the University of Cambridge was borne. The two universities continue in modern day to hold annual competitions, one being the famous boat race. Pitted against their counterparts, they garner a lot of attention publicly and are often broadcast on TV. However, it’s not all heated rivalry, with many of the colleges in Oxford having a sister college in Cambridge. With 44 colleges making up the University of Oxford, you can well imagine you’ll be spotting many of them on your trip to and around the city. With Oxford notably contributing to learning cemented, and praise heavily won by many prominent figures, it become popular with affluent families, with a low representation of people from low income families. Hence why many to this day, assume that unless you are extremely rich your child could never go to Oxford. BUT, as a guide on a recent punting trip told me, that is in fact no longer true and it has to be equal opportunities for all.

There’s SO much to learn! Here are my favourite picks:

Walkers

Being a city, hour’s of walking can easily be done, just to get around the city. There are walking tours covering so many different aspects of the city, from historical to riverside to ghost trails to universities and green spaces. I can recommend Oxford Ghost Tours; a brilliantly delivered and spooky tour that also had the right level of humour to lift the atmosphere. Go in the Autumn when it gets dark earlier and enjoy! I’ll pick the pub up itself later in the blog but if you want a lovely hour long round walk, I can recommend the riverside walk from the Head of the River pub to the Isis Farmhouse and back. It’s a lovely route! There’s also a Mill Stream walk which we took, again off the beaten track, which we took from Swan Bridge, it leads you out and back around the Westgage Shopping Centre, taking us on a 30 min behind the houses tour. Very pleasant.

With so many university colleges to visit, it’s a lovely step into the gardens of many of them, out of the hubbub of the city for some momentary tranquillity. With numerous parks and greenland, the Water Meadow is a lovely walk as well as the Magdalen College Fellow’s Garden. Each college has pristine gardens.

On my wish list:
Port Meadow water walk
More city walks, taking different turns off of side streets, because there really are so many

Shoppers

I would say, unless you are here specifically to shop or are here across the weekend and so you have plenty of time to do it all, the shopping (although amazing) should definitely come second! Having said that, whilst walking through the streets, you won’t fail to be enticed into a variety of different shops, many you’ll have seen before but plenty that you may not have. If you are looking for known names, then head to the Westgate Centre, that does have some great brands there as well as a rooftop terrace and many restaurants to relax in after you are shopped out. What I love about Oxford, is that many of the stores you know, Next, H&M, Zara, Mango to name a few, are all a really decent size so you get a great amount of choice for their ranges.

The covered market is also brilliant to duck out of the sun and busy crowds for a moment to explore the quirkiness of something a little different. There’s plenty to eat and drink in there too and being the one of the oldest markets in the countries, it’s worth checking out! Try and find M Feller & Daughter butchers, where you’ll find a 1000 year ham hanging in the window…needs to be seen to be believed! The Garden of Oxford is also a stop you can’t miss; grab yourself an English-grown bunch of flowers; you deserve it! There’s also some really lovely chocolates on sale at Wicked Chocolate. You’ll also find a couple of other shopping centres about, which I think you’ll naturally come across if you are in the centre of the city.

Shops I want to go back to in the market:
Gulp Fiction – a bookshop-coffee-cocktails kind of place

Drinkers

As you would expect from any good city, there are pubs on almost every corner, and a university city at that, you’re absolutely in luck. I’ve been to a few different ones over the years; stand out ones for me are, Head of the River and Isis Farmhouse – both located on the river, a great spot to stop and relax. The Head of the River always seems to get really busy so get there early! The Isis Farmhouse is only accessible by boat or foot, which makes it a real treat at the end of a walk. I also really liked a bar I came across by accident on my way back to the train station, the Oxo bar, great for cocktails!

Places I’d like to go:
Varsity Cocktail Club – rooftop bar!
Raouls
The Alchemist
The Rickety Press
The Angel & Greyhound

Cafes/Restaurants

Again awash with different options, you can’t fail to find something to suit your taste for lunch or a snack here or something more substantial for dinner. I recently came across a really nice coffee shop CoffeeSmith – off of the main stretch, found within the Golden Cross Shopping area. It’s so lovely inside and a great way to start your day. The staff are really welcoming and the cakes also looked pretty amazing! The Rose tearoom on the high street also serves lovely food. Inside the Covered Market, I also had a really decent lunch at the Brothers cafe – it often has had queues to sit and order, so it’s clearly a popular choice for delicious Greek and Mediterranean food. I enjoyed a really good quality lunch at the Ivy, located ideally on the high street with a slickly run service by the staff. I also rate the cosy Paper Boat Cafe (opposite side of the bridge from Head of the River) and just here you can also go on a lovely river cruise courtesy of Salter’s Steamers.

I’ve got my eye on:
The Grand Cafe – for an afternoon tea
George Street Social – an informal hanging out place with food and drinks- sounds good!
Damascus Rose Kitchen within the old Fire Station – tues-sat they serve Middle Eastern food, supporting Syrian and Arabic-speaking refugee women
Delhish – Vegan

But realistically it’s going to take me years and many visits to get through everything that catches my eye!

Hotels

I have usually done day trips, having the luxury of living quite close to Oxford previously But last year I did stay at the Head of the River, in a LOVELY room. I was really impressed with this inn.

For those looking for something a little different, there is a Malmaison that’s a converted Victorian prison! They do incredible afternoon teas there and so I have been inside enough to say, it does look really nice but I don’t think I’m brave enough to stay!

On my list:
The Randolph – a landmark building
Old Parsonage Hotel – boutique, 5 mins walk from the city, 5*
The Porterhouse Grill & Rooms
The Old Bank Hotel

Sightseeing

This is where Oxford really shines. There’s plenty to do and see. And where to start! If you take a walking tour or a hop on hop off bus tour, you’ll inevitably see and learn ore about the city and the history of it but hopefully some of the things I’ve discovered will be starting points.
Check out St Marys Passage whilst you are near to the high street, because, there is a connection to Narnia! It’s believed that Narnia’s door and the lamppost were the inspiration for CS Lewis in The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe. Given that he studied at Oxford and the similarities are quite strong, it’s highly likely!

A trip to Oxford wouldn’t be complete without a tour around the historical colleges, with chapels, lecture halls, the Bodleain Library, the Great Dining Hall and the oldest Graduation venue, there’s a lot to take in. There are tours that charge or this one, which relies on donations.

Surely punting is also on your list!? You can take a guided tour or have a try yourself. We went to the Magdalen Bridge Boathouse and enjoyed a brilliant guided tour. You can pick from 30 to 60 mins (we did 30 and it was great) and we had a coffee ahead of it at the Old Kitchen Bar, which dates back from the 1300’s in Magdalen College. There are several museums, the Natural History Museum, Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archeology, the weird and wonderful Pitt Rivers Museum which has collections of all kinds of interesting topics (you can access for free through the Natural History museum) and the Museum of History of Science; to name a few!

Of course for all Harry Potter fans, Oxford holds a special connection due to being used for two filming locations. There are many published authors who come from/studied at Oxford, with more published authors per square mile than any other city in the world.

Head to Martyr’s Cross in Broad Street, to see the slightly macabe marking of the spot where three Martyr’s of Oxford were burnt at the stake!

On my list:
The Botanic Gardens – the oldest one in the world
Oxford Prison
Bodleian Library – which stores all of the Universities books (next door to the worlds largest bookshop, Blackwells)

Would I come back to Oxford?

I feel this has been a lot harder to do justice to than I could ever have imagined. It’s a city that feels very safe and clean and I really found a love rekindled for it as I wrote about it. Since I started writing about this, I’ve revisited it twice and I think you could, perhaps like most cities, pick your one or two things to do and make a full day of it. I think you could even do a 3 days, 2 night stay here and get a lot done. I always feel like I’ve only scratched the surface whenever I’ve visited. I already can’t wait to return, so I think it’s safe to say I’d come back and I hope you enjoy it too.