Oxford Right Now

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

Syrian falafel wraps and halloumi from the Cowley Road cafe's market stall — halal, vegetarian-friendly, under the 'Taste the East' banners.

Family-run Shaanxi/Xi'an noodle bar in the Covered Market — the bilingual sign reads 三秦百味 ('Three Qin Hundred Flavours'), the kitchen runs hand-cut biang biang noodles and rou jia mo.

One of England's oldest schools — strong academics and sport in a less intense setting than the Oxford schools.

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.

Vegan-leaning Indian street food at Gloucester Green Market — samosas, thalis, all curries gluten-free.

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

North Oxford's main artery — Victorian villas of the Norham Manor estate, Summertown shops, schools, and college institutions.

The North Parade outpost of Barefoot — coffee and the cake counter from the Jericho bakery.

Eynsham's secondary — a well-regarded rural comprehensive west of Oxford.

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

Specialty coffee and pour-overs on the corner of Banbury Road and North Parade — Oxford's serious coffee destination since 2013.

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

Known as 'The Broad' — bookshops, the Sheldonian, and the Oxford Martyrs memorial.

Independent café-deli on Avenue 3 of the Covered Market — Greek and Mediterranean home cooking alongside English breakfasts, sandwiches and cakes.

Bubble tea, waffles, smoothies and ice cream from a bright-green shopfront on North Parade.

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

The short street linking Broad Street and the High — past the Bodleian, the Bridge of Sighs and All Souls.

A highly oversubscribed state school on Marston Ferry Road — strong results within a comprehensive framework.

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.

Old Master paintings and one of the finest collections of Italian drawings in Britain.

Oxford-based specialty single-origin roaster with a cafe in the Covered Market — espresso, brunch, and bagged beans to take home.

Oxford's pedestrianised retail spine, running north from Carfax to St Mary Magdalen church.

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

Jacket potato counter at stall 16A in the Covered Market — gluten-free and halal labelled, eight fillings on the warmer.

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 medieval tower at the north end of Folly Bridge, demolished 1779. The 13th-century Franciscan friar Roger Bacon — one of the earliest European advocates of the scientific method — is said to have lived and worked here.

Oxford's own ice cream since 1992 — handmade, inventive, and open past midnight.

A pub and bistro on North Parade serving sweet and savoury crêpes alongside the regular drinks list.

Seasonal British cooking in a Victorian glasshouse — an unusual and distinctive dining room.

Greek and Mediterranean café tucked upstairs in the Covered Market, with vintage cinema posters covering the walls and ceiling.

Oxford's outdoor market on Gloucester Green — street food, fresh produce, crafts, and vintage, Wednesday to Saturday.

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 wine bar and small-plates restaurant at the eastern end of North Parade — by-the-glass list, seasonal kitchen, sushi counter.

Greek street food at Gloucester Green Market — souvlaki, gyros, vegan falafel and vegetarian halloumi wraps.

A modern graduate college wrapped around a Georgian observatory tower

Café-and-cocktail bar in the Covered Market with a Tarantino-tinged name, a chequerboard floor and a rainbow flag at the door.

Stoneground-sourdough bakery in the Covered Market — Kate and Hugo Hamblin's second site, after the original on Iffley Road.

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

Headington Rye Oxford — co-ed prep (3–11) and girls' senior (11–18), boarding and day.

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

Known locally as 'The High' — Oxford's grand sweep from Carfax to Magdalen Bridge.

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

C. S. Lewis's parish church from 1930 to his death in 1963 — designed by George Gilbert Scott, built 1848 to 1849 for the quarry workers of Headington Quarry, with a 1991 Narnia window in the north aisle and the Lewis brothers buried in the churchyard.

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.

A quiet east-west street of Jacobean and Georgian cottages, the Holywell Music Room and the King's Arms.

Neapolitan panuozzo bar in the Covered Market, named for the southern Italian good-luck horn.

A family-run Bangladeshi and Indian restaurant on North Parade — quiet room, careful kitchen, the same hands behind it for years.

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

Thai street food at Gloucester Green Market — busy stall trading as 'Just Thai — A Thai Service'.

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

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

Korean street food at Gloucester Green Market — Korean-flag bunting, busy counter, regular Saturday queues.

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

A small Italian pizzeria on North Parade — eat-in, takeaway or delivery.

Traditional Ethiopian dishes on injera, with a Thursday evening coffee ceremony.

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.

One of Oxford's narrowest lanes — a pedestrian shortcut from the High Street to Merton Street.

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

A long, narrow island in the Cherwell — Greek 'between rivers' — laid out as a public walk in 1865, threaded between two branches of the river that flow at different heights.

Oxford's contemporary art gallery — free, ambitious exhibitions in the heart of the city.

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

The narrow lane under the Bridge of Sighs — past Halley's house and into Queen's Lane.

Oxford's choir school — tiny, musical, and tucked behind New College's medieval walls.

A fortnightly farmers' and artisan market on North Parade Avenue — bunting overhead, jazz quartet on the pavement, and stalls from sourdough bakers to Ugandan street food.

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

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

Oxford's modern university — career-focused courses, strong in architecture, planning, and health sciences.

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.

The Catholic parish church for central Oxford — completed in 1875 as a Jesuit foundation, taken over by the Birmingham Oratory in 1990, with a shrine to St John Henry Newman, restored Pippet murals, and a parish history that includes Gerard Manley Hopkins.

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

From Broad Street north to the University Parks — past Wadham, Keble and the Science Area.

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

Proper pies in the Covered Market — the steak and ale is dependable, the specials rotate.

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

Pedestrianised retail running west from Carfax to Bonn Square.

Founded 1654 by Cirques Jobson and claimed as the oldest continuously serving coffee house in Europe — although the present site, a Grade II listed building at 40 High Street, has been its home only since 1970.

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

A 4,500-year-old stone circle on the Oxfordshire–Warwickshire border, with an older Neolithic burial dolmen and a probable Bronze Age standing stone — the most accessible major prehistoric site within reach of Oxford.

Rye St Antony merged with Headington School in 2024 to form Headington Rye Oxford.

Wood-fired sourdough pizza in the Covered Market — a sister business of Church Hanbrewery, with a long communal counter and a separate 'Pizza in the market' takeaway hatch.

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

South from Carfax to Folly Bridge — past Christ Church, the Town Hall and the river.

The 12th-century parish church opposite [Christ Church](/places/colleges/christ-church/) and next door to [Pembroke College](/places/colleges/pembroke/) — Saxon roots, a 13th-century tower rebuilt in 1873, and a glass vestibule opening onto St Aldate's.

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

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

Jericho's Romanesque basilica — informally known as the 'Oxford Basilica' — built in 1869 by Sir Arthur Blomfield for Thomas Combe of OUP, modelled on San Clemente in Rome and the Ravenna basilicas, with an Italianate campanile visible across the canal.

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

A Grade I-listed Norman parish church on St Cross Road, closed in October 2008 and reopened in 2011 as Balliol College's Historic Collections Centre — and the church where, in fiction, Lord Peter Wimsey married Harriet Vane.

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

Known as 'Teddies' — a proper boarding school with a surprisingly warm, unpretentious culture.

The wide boulevard north of the centre — the Eagle and Child, the Lamb and Flag, and the medieval church of St Giles'.

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/).

A day school for girls in Abingdon — strong academics, partnership with Abingdon School.

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

A country prep school with a loyal following — rural setting, strong boarding tradition.

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.

The Anglo-Saxon tower at the head of Cornmarket — c.1040, the oldest standing building in Oxford. The Bocardo Prison cell door behind which Cranmer, Latimer and Ridley were held in 1555-56 is preserved in the tower.

A 12th-century church on Queen's Lane, deconsecrated in the 1970s and now the library of [St Edmund Hall](/places/colleges/st-edmund-hall/) — with a small garden churchyard, a bronze statue of St Edmund as an impoverished student, and a Domesday Book mention from c.1085.

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

A traditional boys' prep school with a strong record of scholarships to Eton and Winchester.

Handmade-fresh sushi counter in the Covered Market — paper lanterns over the door, photo menus in the window, takeaway boxes from the cabinet.

On 10 February 1355 two students complained about the wine at the Swindlestock Tavern at Carfax. Three days later, ninety-three people were dead — and the university had supremacy over the town for the next 470 years.

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.

A Late Neolithic henge and stone circle at Stanton Harcourt, levelled by a wartime airfield, then chewed by gravel quarrying, then reconstructed almost from scratch between 2002 and 2008.

A well-known co-ed prep school in North Oxford — large campus, broad curriculum, strong alumni network.

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

An ancient yew at the entrance to one of England's finest Norman churches — paired inside by John Piper's Tree of Life and Roger Wagner's Flowering Tree windows.

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.

Café, bar and bottleshop in the Covered Market's central courtyard, run by Oxfordshire social enterprise Tap Social Movement — fresh pastries and coffee, eight craft beers on draught, and a curated wine and cocktail list.

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

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

Pub, bar and restaurant tucked behind George Street between the Oxford Playhouse and the New Theatre — one of the city's larger pub gardens for a sunny afternoon.

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.

Tibetan and Bhutanese street food at Gloucester Green Market — momos, ema datshi, vegan curries.

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

Known as 'The Turl' — three colleges and a row of independent shops between Broad and the High.

Britain's oldest chalk hill figure — a 110-metre stylised horse cut into the Berkshire Downs scarp at some point between 1380 and 550 BC, scoured and re-chalked by villagers for at least three thousand years.

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 no-frills sandwich cafe on North Parade — breakfast wraps, baguettes and paninis with bread baked through the day.

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

Four hundred years of gardens behind a Jacobean front quad — Wilkins's mound and mechanical curiosities under Cromwell, a Picturesque tree collection under Wills, and a Sheldonian Emperor's Head retired in the corner.

The spine of Jericho — Oxford University Press, the Phoenix Picturehouse, and a strong run of independent restaurants and cafés.

An Early Neolithic chambered long barrow on the Ridgeway, completed around 3430 BCE — among Britain's best-preserved Severn-Cotswold tombs and a long day's walk from the Uffington White Horse.

Central Oxford's Methodist church — the present Gothic Revival building was opened in 1878 by Charles Bell, on a street where John Wesley preached on 4 July 1783.

Just east of Oxford — a village comprehensive with a strong community identity.

Two wooded chalk hills above the Thames Valley, the most visited outdoor site in Oxfordshire — Iron Age hillfort, Roman villa, beech plantings from the 1740s, and the view that haunted Paul Nash for thirty years.

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.

The western artery north — Somerville, Green Templeton, St Edward's, and on towards Woodstock.

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

Twenty-six acres of gardens, playing fields and a lake inside the city — the largest college grounds in central Oxford, kept that way by the college's 18th-century edge-of-town location.

Tiny, nurturing, and deliberately different — Oxford's smallest senior girls' school.

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 North Oxford house bearing the plaque to Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin — Somerville chemist, X-ray crystallographer, and the only British woman scientist to have been awarded a Nobel Prize.

Oxford's FE college — vocational courses, apprenticeships, and practical skills training.

Oxford's longest-running Lebanese restaurant — three decades of mezze on a quiet Jericho crescent.

Authentic Italian gelato in the Covered Market.

The Covered Market's best-loved falafel stall — massive wraps, tiny prices.

Entirely plant-based street food — bold flavours drawn from global traditions.

A short Regency terrace that Pevsner called 'the finest street ensemble of Oxford' — running from [Worcester College](/places/colleges/worcester/) at one end to the Ashmolean and the [Martyrs' Memorial](/places/landmarks/martyrs-memorial/) at the other, with the Oxford Playhouse and the Randolph Hotel along the way.

Cocktails and pizza on the Cowley Road — a good-time bar that takes both seriously enough.

A Dominican hall on St Giles' — Oxford's oldest teaching tradition, refounded after a four-century gap

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

Jericho's Italian anchor — reliable pizza, proper cocktails, and a terrace that makes you forget you're in England.

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

The market traders' cafe — full English breakfasts and builder's tea since the early hours.

A 50-seat black-box studio on Gloucester Street, named after Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor's donation, programmed by OUDS and the Playhouse with the cheapest serious theatre tickets in Oxford.

Oxford's Jesuit hall — and the only building Lutyens ever designed in the city

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

Headington's comprehensive — inclusive, improving, and proudly comprehensive.

Coffee and college-baked pastries from a converted gardener's office in the St Edmund Hall churchyard.

Specialty coffee in a medieval courtyard.

Social enterprise cafe and co-working space in Jericho.

From a 1912 conversion of a military training school into Britain's largest car factory — and on through Morris Motors, the British Motor Corporation, British Leyland, Rover, and BMW. The single most important site in twentieth-century Oxford.

Five-screen Curzon arthouse cinema on the Westgate roof terrace — opened 2017, programming world cinema, indie releases and event screenings, with comfortable recliners and the Curzon bar.

Oxford's alternative independent — first names, no uniform, strong sixth form.

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

A monthly community farmers' market in East Oxford — local food producers and community stalls on the first Saturday.

Tiny, no-frills Japanese canteen on Holywell Street — ramen, donburi, gyoza, and bento boxes.

A civilised wine bar hidden down Friars Entry — the name is accurate, the escape from the crowds is real.

The east–west shopping and entertainment street that traces the line of Oxford's [medieval city wall](/places/landmarks/city-wall/) — anchored by the **New Theatre** on the north side, **Arts at the Old Fire Station** at No. 40, and the **Gloucester Green** bus station just behind it.

Modern Punjabi street food in the Covered Market — from food van sensation to permanent stall.

Oxford's Catholic comprehensive — strong community ethos, faith-based admissions.

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.

Independent coffee from a horsebox outside the Natural History Museum.

The long road southeast from the Plain towards the village of Iffley — best known as the home of the running track where [Roger Bannister](/people/roger-bannister/) broke the four-minute mile on 6 May 1954, and now the A4158 spine of east Oxford.

Ethically sourced, Oxford-roasted specialty coffee — direct-trade beans with full traceability.

Moorish-style tapas bar on the Cowley Road — lanterns, cocktails, and sharing plates.

Oxford's academic powerhouse — consistently one of the top-performing schools in the country.

West Oxford's secondary — a community comprehensive named after the Victorian poet.

The cobbled lane parallel to the High Street — past Merton, Corpus Christi, and one of England's last real tennis courts.

The 1933 art-deco rebuild of an 1836 George Street theatre — Oxford's main commercial stage for West End musicals, pantomime and big-name tours, run by ATG since 2009.

Rooftop cocktails with a view of the Bodleian spires — Oxford's closest thing to a sky bar.

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

Well-regarded Thai food in a tiny room with a BYOB policy — no corkage, no fuss.

Formerly the Angel & Greyhound — relaunched under Morgan Pub Collective with craft beer and a strong beer garden.

The GDST's Oxford flagship — academically rigorous, no-nonsense, and proudly day school.

Fine dining on the Banbury Road — tasting menus with ambition and precision.

Oxford's leading producing theatre — founded 1923, in its Beaumont Street home since 1938, a Grade II* art-deco auditorium of around 660 seats programming new writing, dance and family work.

East Oxford's academy — serving one of the city's most diverse communities.

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.

East Oxford's theatre for children and young people, on Magdalen Road off the Cowley Road — workshops, youth companies, and a year-round performance programme aimed at under-25s.

Oxford's oldest working cinema — opened 1913 as the North Oxford Kinema, two screens on Walton Street in Jericho, programming arthouse, world cinema, classics and live opera relays.

Old-school French bistro on Little Clarendon Street — steak frites, carafes of wine, and no apologies.

Grand brasserie in the Old Bank Hotel — High Street people-watching with a menu that covers all bases.

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

No-frills Thai cooking on the Cowley Road — big flavours, tiny prices, zero pretension.

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

Cantonese dim sum and Chinese cooking on St Aldates — popular with Oxford's Chinese students.

Specialty coffee done with warmth and precision — pour-over and filter in central Oxford.

Proper Caribbean food on the Cowley Road — jerk chicken with soul, plantain with crunch, and rice and peas done right.

Oxford's International Baccalaureate specialist — global student body, liberal ethos.

An Anglo-Catholic theological college in the former Cowley Fathers' monastery

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 friendly local perched on The Plain roundabout — the gateway pub to east Oxford.

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

A warm-hearted backstreet local between Cowley and Iffley Roads — the garden alone is worth the detour.

Sri Lankan street food tapas — fiery, fragrant, and well priced.

A fully vegetarian pub on a Jericho backstreet — with a garden that lives up to the name.

A no-frills St Clement's local where the quiz is taken seriously and the prices aren't.

Bike-themed cafe-bar on St Michael's Street — good coffee by day, cocktails by night.

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

Reachable only on foot or by boat — a riverside pub at Iffley Lock that feels like a secret.

Cheap cocktails and a sticky floor — Cowley Road's unrepentant late-night favourite.

A serious kitchen in a proper pub — nose-to-tail cooking, popular Sunday roasts, and not a gastro cliche in sight.

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

Oxford's original specialty coffee shop — own-roasted beans on Turl Street.

A tiny Jericho backstreet bistro serving French-inflected food in an intimate setting.

An 1894 fire station on George Street, reopened as an arts centre in 2011 — theatre, comedy, exhibitions and a café-bar — sharing the building with homelessness charity Crisis.

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

A restored 1924 cinema on Magdalen Street, reopened in 2023 as The Oxford Cinema & Café — French Renaissance interiors, the original G. Rushton murals, and a programme of mainstream and event cinema.

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.

Jericho's brunch-to-cocktails pub — a Cranham Street all-day spot with craft beer and a courtyard.

A down-to-earth real ale pub just off the beaten track in St Ebbes.

A Cowley Road all-rounder — good burgers, craft beer, and a garden that earns its keep.

Indian street food and cocktails on Hythe Bridge Street — chaat, grills, thalis, and a full bar.

A fiercely loved backstreet local off Cowley Road — the kind of pub communities fight to save.

Oxford's newest state school — purpose-built, oversubscribed, and still finding its identity.

A single-screen Edwardian cinema on Jeune Street off the Cowley Road — opened 1911, Grade II listed, community-owned since 2022, programming arthouse, foreign-language and cult repertory.

A solid Jericho local — unpretentious, reliable, and always good for a quiet pint.

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

Oxford's board game cafe — over 2,500 games, a bar, and someone on hand to explain the rules.

Coffee and vinyl on the Cowley Road — browse records with a flat white in hand.

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

A beloved Oxford cafe that relocated from its famous Radcliffe Square crypt to King Edward Street in late 2025.

An evangelical Anglican hall on Banbury Road — third-oldest Anglican theological college in England

Chinese-Malaysian cooking in Jericho — refined flavours, a proper wine list, and neighbourhood atmosphere.