Oxford Hotels

Stay in an Oxford hotel and explore life beneath the dreaming spires where majestic college façades hide quadrangle lawns. Hire a punt for a lazy day drifting through leafy University Parks or follow Thomas Hardy’s steps along the Oxford canal to arty Jericho.

Oxford neighbourhoods

Town and gown meets on central Cornmarket Street and High Street, where side streets hide medieval university buildings. North of Cornmarket, the bustling shops give way to Oxford’s colleges and the war memorial in wide St Giles. Follow Philip Pullman’s Northern Lights to one of fiction’s favourite settings, Jericho, where the book’s Gyptians moored their houseboats. Grand Victorian residences define Summertown’s suburbs, where Inspector Morse’s creator, Colin Dexter, penned his whodunits. Magdalen Bridge crosses the punt-dotted River Isis east to Cowley Road, the student playground.

Shopping in Oxford

The aroma of freshly baked cookies and ground coffee seeps under the wrought-iron arches in the Covered Market arcade. Little Clarendon Street is Jericho’s retail gem with its one-off boutiques, jewellers and yummy delis. High-street staples like Gap and Zara will lure you from your hotel in Oxford to the shiny Clarendon Centre. Throngs of shoppers sweep across busy Queen Street to Westgate for Thursday late-night sprees in penny-pinching “Primarni”.

Eating and drinking in Oxford

Green curry and squid ink spag are on the funky fusion menu at neon-lit restaurant bar Camera on St Ebbes Street. Plan your escape to an Oxford hotel near the city’s rejuvenated prison and castle complex – Oxford Castle Unlocked. Candlelit Malmaison brasserie replaces the county gaol and Carluccio’s and Prezzo pizzas are baked on the old site of the Norman castle. Cheap nosh is served up in laid-back studentville Cowley Road. Try tapas at Moroccan-style Kazbah or ghee-laden balti at Aziz or Moonlight. Watch punters and rowers glide past from Head of the River, or quaff Potbelly Aisling and Betty Stogs ales with academics at Oxford institutions the Lamb and Flag and the Turf.

Culture and nightlife in Oxford

Bop to Abba tributes or chuckle at stand-up gags and “impro” at George Street’s landmark New Theatre Oxford. Fringe and theatre companies rehearse around the corner at Beaumont Street’s Oxford Playhouse. East Oxford Social Club swings open its doors to bizarre acts on Catweazle Club open mic nights, like duelling trombonists and naked mystics. Bop at the gritty Carling Academy to breakthrough artists and Nineties throwbacks, or the DJ in his tiki hut in the South Pacific inspired Kukui club.

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