The Library

The Library is not a library. It's a Cowley Road bar that has fuelled more Oxford undergraduate evenings than any reading list ever did. The cocktails are cheap, the music is loud, and the decor has a deliberate disregard for aesthetics that somehow works.

Spread over two floors, it gets progressively more chaotic as the night goes on. The ground floor bar does its best impression of controlled chaos on Friday and Saturday nights. Upstairs is slightly calmer, with booths and a pool table. The cocktail pitchers are the main draw — they won't win any awards, but the price-to-volume ratio is hard to argue with.

What to order

The cocktail pitchers. They're the whole point. If you're here ordering a pint of bitter, you've misread the room. The "library card" — their loyalty scheme — is worth picking up if you're a regular.

The vibe

Pure student energy. This isn't a pub for a quiet contemplative drink — it's where you go to start the evening before heading to a club, or where you end up when the clubs close. It's messy, fun, and completely unpretentious. If you're over 30, you might feel ancient. If you're 20, it's the centre of the universe.