Jericho

Jericho is a compact grid of Victorian terraced streets in central Oxford, just beyond the old city wall. The streets are enclosed by Walton Street, Walton Well Road, Worcester College and the Oxford Canal. One explanation of the name is that it marked a "remote place" outside the wall; the origin is not certain. Built for the people who worked on the canal, in the ironworks and at the university's printing house, it is now a popular residential neighbourhood with a strong run of independent restaurants, pubs and cafes, a long-established cinema and quick access to the canal towpath and Port Meadow. It sits just north-west of the city centre.

What to do in Jericho

Eat

Most of Jericho's restaurants are on Walton Street. Branca has traded there since 2000 and describes itself as a restaurant, deli, cafe, bar and walled garden; elsewhere in Jericho our guide also covers Zheng and Al-Shami. Little Clarendon Street, which links Walton Street with St Giles, is a second cluster of shops and cafes, home to Pierre Victoire and to G&D's, the ice cream shop that two Oxford students opened there in 1992. For coffee, Jericho Coffee Traders roasts its beans in Oxford.

Drink

• The Jericho Tavern, 56 Walton Street, is a pub and live-music venue; Radiohead played there in 1986 as On A Friday, and Supergrass won a record deal after a gig in 1994.
• The Old Bookbinders is a pub on the corner of Victor Street that serves French cuisine.
• The Gardeners Arms, The Victoria and The Rickety Press are three more Jericho locals.
• Freud was a cafe-bar in the former St Paul's Church on Walton Street, a Greek Revival building of 1836. It has closed as a venue, and in December 2025 the university announced it had been bought for its use.

Film at the Phoenix

Phoenix Picturehouse on Walton Street opened in 1913 as the North Oxford Kinema and has been through several names and formats since. It now shows arthouse and first-run films, and sits across the road from Branca.

Walk the canal and Port Meadow

The Oxford Canal forms one edge of Jericho. Narrowboats can be hired on the canal at Canal Street, and a footbridge now stands where a chain ferry once carried people across to the towpath on the far side. For open country, Walton Well Road is one of the ways onto Port Meadow, which runs from Jericho to Wolvercote beside the Thames. Our Port Meadow circular walk starts at the end of Walton Well Road and brings you back to Jericho's cafes.

Churches and St Sepulchre's

St Barnabas is Jericho's Anglo-Catholic parish church beside the canal; its Italianate campanile, finished in 1872, is visible from the surrounding streets, and the church is sometimes called the "Oxford Basilica". St Sepulchre's Cemetery lies just off Walton Street, and the Oxford Jewish Centre and the Oxford Synagogue are also in Jericho.

Jericho in books and on screen

• Thomas Hardy's Jude the Obscure has a scene in St Barnabas, and the suburb called Beersheba in the novel is thought likely to be based on Jericho.
• Colin Dexter's The Dead of Jericho (1981) is the fifth Inspector Morse novel. The television adaptation filmed in Jericho's streets, using Combe Road as "Canal Reach" and the Bookbinders Arms (now the Old Bookbinders) on the corner of Victor Street.
• Philip Pullman set parts of Northern Lights and Lyra's Oxford in Jericho, where the water-dwelling Gyptians of his books live. For the wider trail, see our Lyra's Oxford walk and Lyra's Bench in the Botanic Garden.

A bit of history

Jericho grew up around the Oxford Canal, which reached Oxford in 1790. Wharves, the Eagle Ironworks (since converted to flats) and Oxford University Press all set up here, and the streets are mostly small "two-up, two-down" workers' houses. The Press building on Walton Street was erected in 1826-30. Low-lying ground, poor drainage and overcrowding made the 19th century a hard time for residents: 22 cholera cases were recorded in 1832, and five of eleven typhoid deaths in 1873 came from Jericho.

In the early 1960s there were plans to demolish the area and replace it with light industry and new housing. Residents objected and campaigned, led by city councillor Olive Gibbs and the Jericho Residents Association, and the plans were changed: houses beyond repair came down, but many others were improved with council grants in the late 1960s and early 1970s.

On the canal, Castlemill Boatyard began as a coal wharf by the 1840s and stopped trading in 1992. The Jericho Wharf Trust formed in 2012 to try to buy the land, and the future of the site is still a matter of local campaigning. Jericho keeps a lively community life: the Jericho Community Association runs the Jericho Community Centre on Canal Street and organises the Jericho Street Fair each June.

In 2017 a TravelSupermarket list of the UK's "most hip" destinations ranked Jericho 11th, counting things such as vegan cafes, independent bike shops, record shops and independent coffee shops; in 2018 it came 20th.

Getting there

Walton Street begins at the western end of Beaumont Street, by the main entrance of Worcester College, so the walk from the city centre leads past the Ashmolean on Beaumont Street. Branca's own website puts Jericho at a ten-minute walk from the centre.

Frequently asked questions

Where is Jericho in Oxford?

Jericho is a residential neighbourhood just north-west of the city centre. Its edges are Walton Well Road, Walton Street, Worcester College and the Oxford Canal, and it lies outside the line of the old city wall.

What is Jericho known for?

Its Victorian terraces, independent restaurants, pubs and cafes on Walton Street and Little Clarendon Street, the Phoenix Picturehouse, the canal, and its place in Hardy, Inspector Morse and Philip Pullman. The Jericho Tavern is known for early gigs by Radiohead and Supergrass.

Is Jericho worth visiting, and what is there to do?

Yes, if you want a neighbourhood rather than a monument. Eat on Walton Street, see a film at the Phoenix Picturehouse, have a drink at the Jericho Tavern or the Old Bookbinders, look inside St Barnabas, and walk up Walton Well Road onto Port Meadow.

When is the Jericho Street Fair?

The Jericho Street Fair is held on Canal Street in mid-June each year, around 11 June, the feast day of St Barnabas. It is organised by the Jericho Community Association; since 2023 it has shared a weekend with the Run Jericho fundraising run and the Mass for St Barnabas Day, together billed as Jericho Fest.

How do I get to Port Meadow from Jericho?

Walk up Walton Well Road to its end and you reach the access to Port Meadow. Our Port Meadow circular walk starts there.