Weston Library

Oxford

　　Opened as the New Bodleian Library by King George VI in 1946, and renamed following a modernist overhaul in 2015, the Weston Library remains an extension of the Bodleian across the road, with almost 25 miles of shelving in its basement alone. Its two free galleries display selected ‘Treasures from...

Blackwell’s

Oxford

　　The most famous bookshop in the most studenty of cities, Blackwell’s is, with its vast range of literature, treatises and guilty pleasures, a book-lover’s dream. Be sure to visit the basement Norrington Room, an immense inverted step pyramid, lined with 3 miles of shelves, hailed in the Guinness Book of...

Trinity College

Oxford

　　Founded in 1555, this small college boasts a lovely 17th-century garden quad, designed by Sir Christopher Wren. Its exquisite chapel, a masterpiece of English baroque, contains a limewood altar screen adorned with flowers and fruit carved by master craftsman Grinling Gibbons in 1694, and is looking fabulous after recent restoration...

Last Bookshop

Oxford

　　Booklovers beware! This enticing little Jericho shop can easily swallow an hour of your time. Specialising in remainders and discounted stocks, largely from academic publishers, which it sells at £3 each or two for £5, it also serves coffee and snacks, with rickety tables on the little pavement terrace out...

All Souls College

Oxford

　　One of Oxford’s wealthiest and most tranquil colleges, All Souls was founded as a centre of prayer and learning in 1438. Much of its facade dates from that era, while the smaller Front Quad has remained largely unchanged for five centuries. The eye-catching mock-Gothic towers on the North Quad, though,...

Oxford Castle and Prison

Oxford

　　Little now remains of Oxford Castle, which was built for William the Conqueror in 1071, and largely destroyed after the English Civil War because the defeated Royalists had used it as a prison. Entertaining theatrical tours, though, led by costumed guides and departing every 20 minutes in peak season, now...

Museum of the History of Science

Oxford

　　Students of science will swoon at this fascinating museum, stuffed to the ceilings with awesome astrolabes, astonishing orreries and early electrical apparatus. Housed in the lovely 17th-century building that held the original Ashmolean Museum, it displays everything from cameras that belonged to Lewis Carroll and Lawrence of Arabia to a...

Isis Farmhouse

Oxford

　　Half the fun of this isolated pub – yes, it really is a farmhouse – is the half-hour walk to get there, south along the Thames footpath from Folly Bridge. There’s no road. The other half is drinking fine local beers in its rustic riverside garden on a summer’s afternoon....

Story Museum

Oxford

　　Conceived in celebration of Oxford’s unparalleled storytelling heritage, the Story Museum sprawls its way through a courtyard complex that includes various rooms honouring the likes of Lewis Carroll, Phillip Pullman and Wallace and Gromit. Visitors can simply walk through, treating it as a museum, but its real purpose is a...

Head of the River

Oxford

　　A genuine jewel among Oxford hotels, this large and characterful place, at Folly Bridge immediately south of Christ Church, was originally a Thames-side warehouse. Each of its 20 good-sized rooms is individually decorated with contemporary flair, featuring exposed brickwork and/or tongue-and-groove panelling plus modern fittings, while rates include breakfast cooked...

Malmaison Oxford Castle

Oxford

　　You won’t mind being locked up in this wonderfully converted former prison. Centring on a turreted tower of Oxford’s castle, it’s now a sophisticated contemporary hotel with plush interiors, sultry lighting and polished service. Accessed via classic prison catwalks, each of its 95 slick rooms occupies three former cells, and...

Botanic Garden

Oxford

　　Stretching beside the River Cherwell, Oxford's small, peaceful botanic garden was founded in 1621 for the study of medicinal plants. The oldest of its kind in England, it remains a department of the university, and is run more for research than for display. It’s a lovely spot though, where greenhouses...

Alice’s Shop

Oxford

　　This tiny 500-year-old shop was operating as a grocery – and managed by a sheep – when Lewis Carroll’s Alice popped in. Opposite Carroll’s Christ Church home, it now sells Alice in Wonderland souvenirs from jigsaws to jewellery. ...

The Perch

Oxford

　　This thatched and wonderfully rural 800-year-old inn can be reached by road, but it’s more enjoyable to walk half an hour upstream along the Thames Path, then follow an enchanting footpath punctuated by floral pergolas. Its huge willow-draped garden is an idyllic spot for a pint or two of Fullers,...

Merton College

Oxford

　　Founded in 1264, peaceful and elegant Merton is one of Oxford’s three original colleges. Like the other two, Balliol and University, it considers itself the oldest, arguing that it was the first to adopt collegiate planning, bringing scholars and tutors together into a formal community and providing them with a...

Radcliffe Camera

Oxford

　　Surely Oxford’s most photographed landmark, the sandy-gold Radcliffe Camera is a beautiful, light-filled, circular, columned library. Built between 1737 and 1749 in grand Palladian style, as ‘Radcliffe Library’, it’s topped by Britain’s third-largest dome. It's only been a ‘camera’, which simply means ‘room’, since 1860, when it lost its independence...

Oxford University Museum of Natural History

Oxford

　　Housed in a glorious Victorian Gothic building, with cast-iron columns, flower-carved capitals and a soaring glass roof, this museum makes a superb showcase for some extraordinary exhibits. Specimens from all over the world include a 150-year-old Japanese spider crab, but it’s the dinosaurs that really wow the crowds. As well...

Pitt Rivers Museum

Oxford

　　If exploring an enormous room full of eccentric and unexpected artefacts sounds like your idea of the perfect afternoon, welcome to the amulets-to-zithers extravaganza that is the Pitt Rivers museum. Tucked behind Oxford’s natural-history museum, and dimly lit to protect its myriad treasures, it’s centred on an anthropological collection amassed...

Magdalen College

Oxford

　　Guarding access to a breathtaking expanse of private lawns, woodlands, river walks and even its own deer park, Magdalen ('mawd-lin'), founded in 1458, is one of Oxford’s wealthiest and most beautiful colleges. Beyond its elegant Victorian gateway, you come to its medieval chapel and glorious 15th-century tower. From here, move...

Ashmolean Museum

Oxford

　　Britain’s oldest public museum, Oxford’s wonderful Ashmolean Museum is surpassed only by the British Museum in London. It was established in 1683, when Elias Ashmole presented Oxford University with a collection of ‘rarities’ amassed by the well-travelled John Tradescant, gardener to Charles I. A new exhibition celebrates Ashmole’s 400th birthday...

Bodleian Library

Oxford

　　At least five kings, dozens of prime ministers and Nobel laureates, and luminaries such as Oscar Wilde, CS Lewis and JRR Tolkien have studied in Oxford's Bodleian Library, a magnificent survivor from the Middle Ages. Wander into its central 17th-century quad, and you can admire its ancient buildings for free....

Christ Church

Oxford

　　With its compelling combination of majestic architecture, literary heritage and double identity as (parts of) Harry Potter’s Hogwarts, Christ Church attracts tourists galore. Among Oxford’s largest colleges – the largest, if you include its bucolic meadow – and proud possessor of its most impressive quad, plus a superb art gallery...