Oxford litteraire

Seasonal produce, British farmhouse cheese and small-supplier wines from a deep-blue shopfront on North Parade.

The footpath around a Cherwell island in Magdalen's grounds — named for Joseph Addison, walked by Joseph Addison, made famous a century later by C.S. Lewis and Tolkien.

The real shop that inspired Tenniel's illustration in Through the Looking-Glass — now selling all things Alice.

No students, the hardest exam in the world, and Hawksmoor's twin towers

The world's first university museum — free, with major collections of art and archaeology.

One of Oxford's oldest colleges — plain outside, historically significant inside

A specialist collection of historical musical instruments, from medieval to modern.

The original Ben's Cookies — baked fresh in the Covered Market since 1984, famous far beyond Oxford.

An Oxford institution since 1879 — Broad Street bookshop with the cavernous Norrington Room below.

One of the oldest libraries in Europe — the Divinity School, Duke Humfrey's Library, and the Radcliffe Camera.

Right behind the Radcliffe Camera — an intimate college with a painted chapel ceiling

Hertford College's 1914 covered skyway over New College Lane — Oxford's most photographed bridge, despite resembling neither of the actual Bridges of Sighs.

The 23-metre Saxon-medieval tower at the centre of Oxford — climb 99 steps for a four-way panorama.

Oxford's grandest college — part cathedral, part palace, all spectacle

The smallest cathedral in England and the only one that is also a college chapel. Norman bones, a 14th-century Becket window that survived the Reformation, and five Burne-Jones windows.

One of Oxford's smallest colleges, with a famous pelican sundial

Tolkien's college, a miniature Sainte-Chapelle, and a hidden view over Radcliffe Square

The 1825 stone bridge at the south end of St Aldate's, Grade I listed and standing on the site of an oxen-ford that gave Oxford its name. The boat that became *Alice in Wonderland* set off from here on 4 July 1862.

A Benedictine nunnery founded in 1133 on an island in the Thames; the burial place of Henry II's mistress Rosamund Clifford until a bishop ordered her tomb thrown out of the church in 1191. Suppressed in 1539, ruined in the Civil War, painted by the Pre-Raphaelites, picnicked over by Lewis Carroll.

A modern graduate college wrapped around a Georgian observatory tower

Oxford's mature-student college with Burne-Jones and William Morris stained glass

Home of the Bridge of Sighs — Oxford’s most photographed architectural moment

Scientific instruments from the Middle Ages to the 19th century, in the world's oldest surviving purpose-built museum.

Victorian cemetery established in 1847 on Merton College land. The resting place of Kenneth Grahame, Walter Pater, Charles Williams and the Mad Hatter's reputed model — now a wildlife refuge with muntjac deer and pheasants.

The Welsh college on Turl Street — quieter than its neighbours, full of character

Victorian polychrome brick — Oxford's most divisive building and a masterpiece painting

Oxford's part-time and continuing education hub — not a tourist destination

Riverside gardens and pioneering history, away from the tourist crush

A proper Oxford local — ancient, unpretentious, and owned by St John's College.

An eco-focused graduate college — admirable but not a visitor attraction

A perfectly preserved medieval gem on Turl Street — John Wesley's college

The bench at the back of the Botanic Garden where, in the closing chapter of Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials, Lyra and Will promise to sit at noon on Midsummer's day every year.

Extensive grounds with a deer park, river walks, and a famous tower

The 144-foot perpendicular Gothic tower of Magdalen College (1509) — the centrepiece of the High Street and the gathering point for May Morning.

A Nonconformist college with a Gothic Revival chapel and progressive spirit

Sir Gilbert Scott's 1843 Gothic-Revival monument to Cranmer, Latimer and Ridley — the three Oxford Martyrs burned for heresy in 1555–1556.

Oxford's oldest quad, a medieval library, and Tolkien's second home

Medieval cloisters, a stretch of city wall, and a chapel with an El Greco

Oxford's social science powerhouse — architecturally divisive, intellectually formidable

Oxford's oldest royal foundation — seven centuries on a beautiful square

Norman castle (1071) and former Victorian prison — the medieval mound, St George's Tower, and 1,000 years of overlapping use.

The 13th-century defensive ring around medieval Oxford — best-preserved in the gardens of New College.

Dinosaurs, dodos, and Darwin's legacy — all under a Gothic Revival iron-and-glass roof.

Samuel Johnson's college — quietly handsome, just off St Aldate's

A Victorian cabinet of curiosities — shrunken heads, totem poles, and half a million objects from every culture on earth.

James Gibbs's English Palladian rotunda (1749) — the first circular library in the country and the most photographed building in Oxford.

A tiny Baptist hall on St Giles' — small and friendly

Sir Christopher Wren's first major building (1668) — the University's ceremonial assembly hall, with a painted ceiling and a viewing cupola.

A pioneering women's college — alumni include Thatcher, Sayers, and Indira Gandhi

A modernist campus college with a strong access ethos — not a sightseeing stop

Oxford's international affairs college — impressive seminars, not impressive buildings

Designed by Arne Jacobsen — a complete modernist campus with sculpture gardens by the Cherwell

A small graduate college sharing the Grade II-listed Pusey House on St Giles'

The oldest academic hall in any university — 800 years in a tiny quad off Queen's Lane

The Norman parish church at the northern head of St Giles', finished in 1120 and consecrated in 1200 by St Hugh of Lincoln — the consecration that gave Oxford [St Giles' Fair](/places/streets/st-giles/).

Oxford's last single-sex college (until 2008), with Cherwell riverside gardens

14 acres of gardens in North Oxford — one of the largest college grounds in the university

Oxford's wealthiest college — Canterbury Quad, large gardens, and serious money

A Grade I-listed ancient parish church on Magdalen Street, with Saxon origins, work by Saint Hugh of Lincoln in 1194, and Oxford's first Gothic Revival interior — George Gilbert Scott's 1841 Martyrs' Aisle, complementing the [Martyrs' Memorial](/places/landmarks/martyrs-memorial/) immediately to the north.

A young college on an ancient site — unassuming but well located near the castle

Oxford's oldest pub — famous for its tie collection and recently expanded into a larger space.

Oxford's beating heart since 1774 — over 50 independent stalls under one historic roof.

Where the Inklings met — Tolkien and Lewis's local on St Giles'.

The pub where Radiohead played their first gig — Oxford's main small live music venue.

C.S. Lewis's Oxford home from 1930, built 1922 on the site of a former brickworks. Now the C.S. Lewis Foundation Study Centre.

Oxford's quintessential student pub — Young's ales on Holywell Street, opposite the Bodleian.

Wine-focused bottle shop and tasting bar in the Covered Market — a joint venture between Eynsham Cellars and the adjacent Teardrop Bar, with around 250 bottles and six wines on tap.

A thatched riverside pub reached via a walk across Port Meadow.

A baroque showpiece on the High Street — Oxford's only fully classical college

North Parade's anchor pub — a proper local where the landlord knows every regular by name.

Inspector Morse's local, perched over a weir on the Thames at Wolvercote — come for the view, stay for the atmosphere.

A well-hidden pub, tucked down a medieval alleyway behind the Bodleian.

A brass-plaqued bench in University Parks, dedicated to J.R.R. Tolkien (1892–1973) by the Tolkien Centenary Conference in 1992 — accompanied by two trees said to represent Telperion and Laurelin, the Two Trees of Valinor.

The site, in the Oxford Botanic Garden, of the Pinus nigra under which J.R.R. Tolkien 'often spent his time reposing'.

Sir Christopher Wren's Gothic-revival gatehouse tower at Christ Church (1682) — home of Great Tom, the bell that still rings 101 times every night.

The Jacobean entrance tower of the Bodleian — a single building demonstrating all five classical orders, stacked vertically.

Spacious gardens and a Wren chapel on Broad Street — often overlooked

The University's church on the High Street, with one of the best tower views in Oxford and a 13th-century spire.

Possibly Oxford's oldest college — Shelley's memorial and a long High Street facade

A well-preserved Jacobean quad, large gardens, and a progressive reputation

Isaiah Berlin's riverside graduate college — Powell & Moya's Grade II-listed modernist campus

City cemetery opened in 1889. The Roman Catholic section contains the grave of J.R.R. Tolkien and his wife Edith, headstone inscribed Beren and Lúthien.

A lake, medieval cottages, and large gardens — one of central Oxford's hidden landscapes

The North Oxford house where James Murray edited the first edition of the Oxford English Dictionary from a corrugated-iron shed in the back garden — the original Scriptorium, with 1,029 pigeon-holes and a Post Office postbox of its own.

The Covered Market's greengrocer since 1952 — seasonal fruit and veg from local farms.

Broad Street's independent art supplies shop — paints, papers, and materials for working artists and students.

Loose-leaf teas and freshly roasted coffees in the Covered Market — the smell alone is worth the detour.

A proper traditional butcher in the Covered Market — locally sourced meat, hand-cut to order.

Opened in 1748 on a quiet lane behind New College, the Holywell Music Room is widely cited as the oldest purpose-built concert hall in Europe — and it still hosts weekly recitals.

Mid-century furniture, vintage homeware, and salvaged curiosities on the Cowley Road.

The retail home of the world's largest university press — dictionaries, academic texts, and OUP's full catalogue on the High Street.

Independent clothing and gifts in the Covered Market — Oxford-made where possible.

Antique maps, prints, and engravings on the High Street — established 1967.

Fine pens, handmade papers, and writing instruments on Turl Street.

The Covered Market's organic grocer — wholefood staples, fresh produce, and zero-waste refills before it was fashionable.

A well-stocked museum shop — jewellery, prints, and design objects inspired by the Ashmolean's collection.

Every type of brush imaginable — a Covered Market institution.

An independent bakery in the Covered Market — honest cakes, pastries, and bakes without the artisan price tag.

A proper pub hiding in plain sight on the High Street — the 15th-century beams are the real deal.

A big riverside pub at Folly Bridge — the terrace over the Thames is the whole point.

A proper village pub in Headington Quarry — the kind of place C.S. Lewis would have walked to, because he did.

A serious cheese counter in the Covered Market — British and European artisan cheeses, cut to order.

The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood's most famous fiasco — Rossetti, Morris and Burne-Jones painted Arthurian scenes onto the bare brickwork of the Union's debating hall in 1857. The paint started peeling before the work was finished.

A village green pub in Wolvercote — proper ale, proper food, properly relaxed.

A tiny Broad Street pub squeezed between Blackwell's and the Bodleian — smaller than some college rooms.

Vintage clothing on the Cowley Road — rammed rails at student-friendly prices.