Things To Do in Oxford

The best way to get a running commentary on the important sights is to take a 2-hour walking tour through the city and the major colleges. The tours leave daily from the Oxford Tourist Information Centre at 11am, 1, and 2pm. Tours costs £7 for adults and £3.50 for children 15 and younger; the tours do not include New College or Christ Church. There are two tours that leave the Oxford Tourist Information Centre on Saturday at 10:30am and 1:30pm; these tours include admission to Christ Church. They cost £7.50 adults, £4 children 15 and younger. Call tel. 01865/252200 (www.visitoxford.org) for more information.

For a good orientation, hour-long, open-top bus tours around Oxford are available from City Sightseeing Oxford (tel. 01865/790522; www.citysightseeingoxford.com), whose office is at the railway station (tours also start from the railway station; other pickup points are Sheldonian Theatre, Gloucester Green Bus Station, and Pembroke College). Buses leave every 10 to 15 minutes daily. Tickets are good for the day. Tours run November to February daily from 9:30am to 3:40pm, March daily from 9:30am to 4:40pm, and April to October daily 9:30am to 6:30pm. The cost is £12 for adults, £9.50 for students and seniors, £6 for children 5 to 14 years old; a family ticket for two adults and three children is £31. Children 4 and younger get to ride free. Tickets can be purchased from the driver and are valid for 24 hours.

The Tourist Information Centre, 15-16 Broad St. (tel. 01865/252200), offers a ghost tour, which explores Oxford's ghoulish and gory past. The office also has a number of walking tours, with the ghost tour available Friday and Saturday evenings June to October from 7:45pm, covering the dark alleyways around the ancient schools. The cost is £7.50 for adults and £4 for children; tickets are available at the office during the day. Day tours begin at 10am daily, including Christmas.

A Nostalgic Walk -- Our favorite pastime here is to take Addison's Walk through the water meadows. The stroll is named after a former Oxford alumnus, Joseph Addison, the 18th-century essayist and playwright noted for his contributions to The Spectator and The Tatler.

Golden Cross, an arcade of first-class shops and boutiques, lies between Cornmarket Street and the Covered Market (or between High and Market Streets). Parts of the colorful gallery date from the 12th century. Many buildings remain from the medieval era, along with some 15th- and 17th-century structures. The market also has a reputation as the Covent Garden of Oxford, with live entertainment on Saturday mornings in summer. In the arcade shops is a diverse selection of merchandise, including handmade Belgian chocolates, clothing for both women and men, and luxury leather goods.

In its way, Alice's Shop, 83 St. Aldate's (tel. 01865/723793; www.aliceinwonderlandshop.co.uk), played an important role in English literature. Set within a 15th-century building that has housed some kind of shop since 1820, it functioned as a general store (selling brooms, hardware, and the like) during the period that Lewis Carroll, at the time a professor of mathematics at Christ Church College, was composing Alice in Wonderland. It is believed to have been the model for important settings within the book. Today, the place is a favorite stopover of Lewis Carroll fans from as far away as Japan, who gobble up commemorative pencils, chess sets, party favors, bookmarks, and, in rare cases, original editions of some of Carroll's works.

The Bodleian Library Shop, Old School's Quadrangle, Radcliffe Square, Broad Street (tel. 01865/277091), specializes in Oxford souvenirs, from books and paperweights to Oxford banners and coffee mugs.

Castell & Son (The Varsity Shop), 13 Broad St. (tel. 01865/244000; www.varsityshop.co.uk), is the best outlet in Oxford for clothing emblazoned with the Oxford logo or heraldic symbol. Choices include both whimsical and dead-on-serious neckties, hats, T-shirts, pens, beer and coffee mugs, and cuff links. It's commercialized Oxford, but it's still got a sense of relative dignity and style. A second location is at 109-114 High St. (tel. 01865/249491).

The Performing Arts

Highly acclaimed orchestras playing in truly lovely settings mark the Music at Oxford series at the Oxford Playhouse Theatre, Beaumont Street (tel. 01865/305305; www.oxfordplayhouse.com). The autumn season runs from mid-September to December, the winter season from January to April, and the spring-summer season from May to early July. Tickets range from £5 to £40. Classical music is performed by outstanding groups such as the European Union Chamber Orchestra, the Canterbury Musical Society, the Bournemouth Symphony, and the Guild Hall String Ensemble of London. All performances are held in the Sheldonian Theatre, a particularly attractive site, designed by Sir Christopher Wren, with paintings on the ceiling. The Playhouse Box Office is open Monday to Saturday 9:30am to 6pm (or to half an hour after the start of an evening performance) and from at least 2 hours before a performance on Sunday.

New Theatre (formerly the Apollo), George Street (tel. 01865/320760; www.newtheatreoxford.org.uk for administration, or call Ticketmaster tel. 0844/8471585 for bookings), is Oxford's primary theater. Tickets are £15 to £50. A continuous run of comedy, ballet, drama, opera, and even rock contributes to the variety. The Welsh National Opera often performs, and the Glyndebourne Touring Opera appears regularly. Advance booking is highly recommended, though some shows may have tickets the week of the performance. The box office is open Monday to Saturday 10am to 8pm (to 6pm if there is no evening performance).

Pubs with a Pedigree

Every college town the world over has a fair number of bars, but few can boast local watering holes with such atmosphere and history as Oxford.

A short block from the High, overlooking the north side of Christ Church College, the Bear Inn, 6 Alfred St. (tel. 01865/728164), is an Oxford landmark, built in the 13th century and mentioned time and time again in English literature. The Bear brings together a wide variety of people in a relaxed way. You may talk with a raja from India, a university don, or a titled gentleman who's the latest in a line of owners that goes back more than 700 years. Some former owners developed an astonishing habit: clipping neckties. Around the lounge bar you'll see the remains of thousands of ties, which have been labeled with their owners' names.

Even older than the Bear is the Turf Tavern, 7 Bath Place (off Holywell St.; tel. 01865/243235; www.theturftavern.co.uk), on a very narrow passageway near the Bodleian Library. The pub is reached via St. Helen's Passage, which stretches between Holywell Street and New College Lane. (You'll probably get lost, but any student worth his beer can direct you.) Thomas Hardy used the place as the setting for Jude the Obscure. It was "the local" of the future U.S. president Bill Clinton during his student days at Oxford. In warm weather, you can choose a table in any of the three separate gardens that radiate outward from the pub's central core. For wintertime warmth, braziers are lighted in the courtyard and in the gardens. A food counter set behind a glass case displays the day's fare -- salads, soups, sandwiches, and so on. Local ales (including one named Headbanger, with a relatively high alcohol content) are served, as well as a range of wines.

Just outside of town, hidden away some 4km (2 1/2 miles) north of Oxford, the Trout Inn, 195 Godstow Rd., Wolvercote (tel. 01865/510930; www.thetroutoxford.co.uk), is a private world where you can get ale and beer and standard fare. Have your drink in one of the historic rooms, with their settles (wooden benches), brass, and old prints, or go out in sunny weather to sit on a stone wall. On the grounds are peacocks, ducks, swans, and herons that live in and around the river and an adjacent weir pool; they'll join you if you're handing out crumbs. Take an arched stone bridge, architecture with wildly pitched roofs and gables, add the Thames River, and you have the Trout. The Smoking Room, the original 12th-century part, complements the inn's relatively "new" 16th-century bars. Daily specials are featured. Hot meals are served all day in the restaurant; salads are featured in summer, and there are grills in winter. On your way there and back, look for the view of Oxford from the bridge. Take bus no. 6A, 6B, or 6C to Wolvercote, and then walk 1km (a half mile); it's also fun to bike here from Oxford. Open hours are Sunday 11am to 10:30pm, Monday to Saturday 11am to 11pm.

The Clubs: Blues, Jazz & Celtic Rock

As a sign of the times, Freud, 119 Walton St. (tel. 01865/311171; www.freudliving.co.uk), has turned an 18th-century church, stained-glass windows and all, into a jazz and folk club with an expansive array of drink choices. There is no cover charge, and hours are Tuesday noon to 11pm and Wednesday to Sunday noon to 2am.

OFS, 40 George St. (tel. 01865/297170), covers all the bases, including live entertainment, a bar, theater, art museum, and a science museum called Curiosity, with a light show and other exhibits. Music cover charges begin at 11pm and are £5. Offerings change nightly but include 1970s disco, blues, jazz, and local bands. It's open daily 9pm to 2am.

Other after dark venues include Jericho Tavern, 56 Walton St. (tel. 01865/311775), which is on two levels. Downstairs patrons consume the suds inside with a modern decor or else in the beer garden. Upstairs is another area for drinking. Live music is played Friday and Saturday when a £5 to £8 cover is imposed. Open Monday to Friday noon to midnight, or Saturday and Sunday 10am to midnight.

A popular student hangout is Thirst, 7-8 Park End St. (tel. 01865/242044), with a lounge bar and also a small garden. A DJ rules the night. Open Sunday to Wednesday 10:30am to midnight, Tuesday to Thursday 10:30am to 1am, and Friday and Saturday 10am to 2am.