Oxford: a top-class spot
An introduction to Oxford
Elegant, old-school and endlessly charming, the cloistered city of Oxford is a top-class spot for culture with character. Issy von Simson steers us through its hallowed highlights
If you're looking for stark modernism, an urban beat, a city on the cusp, Oxford probably isn't going to tick the boxes. This is a place that doesn't really do cool. Or cutting-edge. And that's because it doesn't need to. The old-school glory of this scholarly seat is what we flock to see: to catch sight of the gowns and mortarboards, to peer into dark cloisters, to peek at pristine green quads and to marvel at the antiquity, the refinement, the film-set grandeur. We come here for the Brideshead vibe and for the bookshops (especially Blackwell, the Guiness World Record holder for having the largest single room selling books), for punting and pubs, for colleges and culture, and for the two museums that are worth the trip alone. It's pocket-sized, so you can potter around on foot or two wheels - from Summertown to Jericho to St Clement's and back again, down cobbled alleyways, through the covered market, in the shadows of soaring spires. Oxford is constant, reliable, wonderful, a weekend jaunt with historic thrills.
Pictured: Merton Street, Oxford
Old Parsonage Hotel, Oxford
COUNTRY-ESQUE CRASH PAD: OLD PARSONAGE HOTEL At the top of yawningly wide St Giles, where the Banbury and Woodstock roads fork off, the Old Parsonage is more Cotswold manor than city bolthole. It is handsome as hell from the outside, with wisteria clambering up the front of the 17th-century building, a studded-oak front door, mullioned windows and a pair of sit-up-and-beg, wicker-basketed bicycles, longing to be taken for a ride. There's a low-ceilinged, blood-red dining room crammed with oil paintings, velvet-cushioned seats and smooth, cool flagstones underfoot. Log fires roar in winter months, and you can breakfast out on the sunny, tulip-bordered terrace in spring. If you plan on sleeping here, you need to embrace the quaint creakiness and not care about strangely sloping floors and higgledy-piggledy corridors and stairways. Bedrooms are muted and elegant, with crisp sheets, vases of fresh flowers, the odd lovely mahogany antique, but, crucially, nothing too showy to detract from the pictures on the walls: every room comes with an original charcoal sketch of Oxford by home-grown artist Tim Steward. Old Parsonage Hotel, 1 Banbury Road. (01865 310210; www.oldparsonage-hotel.co.uk) Doubles from £225.
Head of the River, Oxford
PUB ON THE ISIS: THE HEAD OF THE RIVER A converted 19th-century warehouse wedged between the Thames and Christ Church meadow, this is a late-night boozer with beds to flop into. Come here on a sultry summer evening and try one of the ever-changing guest beers - the pub is owned by Fuller's - on the terrace overlooking Folly Bridge. It can verge on boisterous, and if there's even a sniff of a rowing event, beware: you will be sharing the space with a heaving throng; but catch it on a quiet day and those river views are all yours. When last orders are called, retreat to your room, where you'll find all that's charming and country pub-ish: seagrass on the floors, sage and cream painted walls and wrought-iron beds. The Head of the River, St Aldate's (01865 721600; www.headoftheriveroxford.co.uk) Doubles from £95.
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Oxford Colleges, Oxford
HALLS OF GLORY: OXFORD COLLEGES There are 38 colleges at the University of Oxford (not including the six private halls) and you can stay in 26 of them. These are student digs, yes, but goodness what digs! It is worth sleeping here just for the sheer cloistered wondrousness of it all. The rooms are occupied in term time, obviously, but if you can get to Oxford during the holidays - Easter, summer, Christmas - you can bunk down quite easily. Keble was one of the first, but now practically everyone's at it. Rooms are smarter than you might expect, some (actually lots) with double beds and even their own bathrooms. It's campus cosy, not boutique chic, but that is the point. You'll wake to views over the quad, toast and coffee in the wood-panelled dining hall, and you can swan in and out of these hallowed buildings like a bona fide scholar. Doubles from £70. To book a room please contact the University Rooms website.
Pictured: Magdalen College, Oxford
Old Bank Hotel, Oxford
RIGHT IN THE THICK OF IT: OLD BANK HOTEL A lively hotspot and not what you might expect from a former Barclays bank, this hotel, three Georgian houses smooshed together, sits on the edge of the High Street. The location is stellar, bang opposite baroque beauty All Souls and the University Church of St Mary, a stone's throw from the Radcliffe Camera and the Bodleian Library, with Oriel College bringing up the rear. Owner Jeremy Mogford holds all the high-rolling cards in the game of Oxford Monopoly. He set up Browns restaurant (one of the originals), the Old Parsonage (see below) and Gee's (more of which later), and this, his most funky number.
Downstairs, the Quod Brasserie is a buzzy place where people drink cocktails under arched windows and shout at each other across the bar. Upstairs is quieter. Rooms, modern and smart, are a bit magnolia, a bit restrained; but then with gargoyles and cupolas and the comeliest rooftops in the country outsider, it was probably best to leave a blank canvas within. More interestingly, there's art, lots of art: 20th-century pieces, a Wyndham Lewis here and a Henry Cliffe there, not to mention the glorious glut of Stanley Spencers in the Library Bar, and 21st-century floor-fillers such as Damien Hirst, Gary Hume and Henrietta Dubrey.Old Bank Hotel, 92-94 High Street. (01865 799599; www.oldbank-hotel.co.uk) Doubles from £132.
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The Magdalen Arms, Oxford
GASTROPUB WITH A WHISPER OF MICHELIN: THE MAGDALEN ARMS This is a serious Sunday lunch place. The menu is timely and relevant. There are game feasts in season - partridge casserole, venison shank, rabbit, grouse and wood pigeon - and in summer you can order the biggest crabs. Dishes tend to be simple, rarely more than a couple of ingredients, but they sing. The service is hit-and-miss (you will long to go and help yourself from the kitchen), but the food really is terrifically good and you can play a game of bar billiards while you wait. Front-of-house Florence Fowler and Oxford-born-and-bred chef Tony Abarno both arrived here via the brilliant Anchor & Hope in London's Waterloo, and the high expectations that come from such a pedigree are rewarded. The Magdalen Arms, 243 Iffley Road. (01865 243159; www.magdalenarms.com) About £50 for two.
Gee's Restaurant & Bar, Oxford
ELEGANT EVENING: GEE'S RESTAURANT & BAR Light-filled during the day, twinkly and candlelit after dark, Gee's Restaurant & Bar, in the conservatory of a former flower shop, is the most reliable spot for a smart supper. It's best known for its modern British grub - smoked eel, sweetbreads, a cracking cheeseboard - and rootin' tootin' Sunday jazz nights, but there are gentle changes afoot. Just recently, things were given a shake-up, with a kickback to a more informal vibe. The glasshouse is now foliage-laden with pots of herbs, and for green-fingered types there's more shrubbery outside, which you can buy. Gee's Restaurant & Bar, 61 Banbury Road. (01865 55340; www.gees-restaurant.co.uk) About £50 for two.
Turl Street Kitchen, Oxford
CAFE WITH A CONSCIENCE: TURL STREET KITCHEN How's this for ethical origins? The Turl Street Kitchen was launched as part of a fund-raising effort for the Oxford Hub charity. And what a great job they have done. It's a groovy little spot with a daily changing, locally sourced, free-range hit of a menu. Come for a warming bowl of lamb broth or a robust beetroot and goat's curd salad at lunchtime, or later in the day perch at the green-and-white-tiled bar for a Sipsmith gin and Fentiman's tonic, a punchy Fairtrade espresso or a bottle of Freedom organic beer. Dinner is more substantial: slow-cooked beef ragout with a carafe of red, rounded off with a creamy, fruity trifle. It's well thought-out home cooking but without the washing up. There is always a queue and it has a table-sharing system, so be sure to book. Turl Street Kitchen, 16-17 Turl Street (01865 264171; www.turlstreetkitchen.co.uk) About £30 for two.
Vaults and Garden Cafe, Oxford
LAZY LUNCH: VAULTS & GARDEN CAFE When it rains, you can hunker down under the vaulted ceilings of the university's Old Congregation House at the Vaults and Garden Cafe. When the sun shines, grab a bench in the leafy garden, or if there's not one free, they'll lend you a checkered picnic blanket to lie out in the shadow of the Radcliffe Camera. This restaurant is where you come when there's dietary trickiness to be considered. You can get a tasty vegan, gluten-free lunch, such as spiced chickpea tagine or red-pepper soup, from a kitchen that also serves rich and hearty organic-beef meatballs. There are some awesome teas with homemade scones, sweet sticky jams and thick clotted cream. If, after all that, you have the energy, tackle the 127 steps to the top of the University Church tower for bird's-eye views over the feted skyline. The same people have just opened Will's Deli on Woodstock Road. Vaults & Garden Cafe, 1 Radcliffe Square (01865 279112; www.thevaultsandgarden.com) About £30 for two.
The history and culture of Oxford
HISTORY & CULTURE: THE HEARTBEAT OF OXFORD
THE ASHMOLEAN This city has not one but two staggering museums. The Ashmolean - a neoclassical beauty - has had £60 million spent on it, guiding it resplendently into the 21st century with a general spit and polish, a little demolition (in fact, more than half of the original building came down) and an impressive extension by architect Rick Mather. The result - lighter, more clearly curated and with a rooftop restaurant - is a standout success. The excitements on show include an original Stradivarius violin and Oliver Cromwell's death mask. The Ashmolean, Beaumont Street (01865 278002; www.ashmolean.org)
THE PITT RIVERS MUSEUM The Pitt Rivers Museum, Oxford's other institution, is a living, breathing treasure chest - three floors of the maddest stuff you never knew you wanted to see. In the collection of ancient handmade objects, tchotchkes, knick-knacks and doodahs there are voodoo dolls and feather headdresses, canoes dangling from the ceilings and totem poles lining the walls. In the lower gallery you take a wind-up electric torch to navigate the shadows and are allowed to pull open drawers in the display cases. The Pitt Rivers Museum, South Parks Road (01865 270927; www.prm.ox.ac.uk)
What to do in Oxford
WHAT TO DO
PUNTING ON THE CHERWELL You can't come to Oxford without taking a punt at punting. The best place to start is The Cherwell Boathouse, which has the advantage of not only being somewhere you can rent the flat-bottomed boats but also a restaurant, so you can have a bite to eat or a drink, too. This is no Venetian gondola experience though - you are your own skipper (and need only the most basic training). From the middle of March to the middle of October, you can venture out on the still waters of the Cherwell and either go upstream towards Marston, rewarding yourself with lunch at the Victoria Arms, or downstream to the University Parks for a picnic. Straw boaters optional. The Cherwel Boathouse, 50 Bardwell Road, Oxford (01865 515978; www.cherwellboathouse.co.uk)
CYCLING AROUND OXFORD Alternatively, go for the locals' mode of transport and hire a bike. Oxford couldn't be more cycle-friendly and you're less likely to get yourself into trouble on a bicycle than you are in a boat. Bainton Bikes has the best range: you can rent pretty much any sort, including electric numbers for lazybones, mountain bikes for adventurers and tandems for romantics. Bainton Bikes, 78 Walton Street, Oxford (01865 311610; www.baintonbikes.com)
Published in Condé Nast Traveller March 2013.