Walking Tour of Oxford, U.K.

There is so much to see in every direction that I will suggest a general walking tour that hits the most important sights and sites. Start at Gloucester Green which is no longer green but a large paved space adjacent to the bus station and transformed into a market on Wednesdays and Saturdays. Walk through Gloucester Green on Gloucester Street to Beaumont Street. You will pass The Oxford Playhouse. Turn right and you will pass other playhouses. The Ashmolean Museum is on the corner of St. Giles Street. It is the first purpose-built museum and great for a rainy day. Cross the street and turn left to St. John’s College which is open to the public from 1-5 and, hopefully, still free as of August, 2009. The entrance to many of the old colleges is a small, unmarked door in a tall wall. Walk straight through to the lovely gardens and then a loop path. (If it is too early to enter St. John’s, this tour will return you here later.) Return to St. Giles Street and turn left and left again on Broad Street. Bailol College is one of about 35 Oxford colleges and can be seen behind its iron fence on the left. On the other side of the street is tourist information. Get a map and check out the many events of the day. Blackwells is a famous, old book store on one side of Broad Street and has expanded to a music store and print shop on the opposite side of the street. The Sheldonian Theater with its surrounding heads is a famous Christopher Wren building—but not very comfortable for sitting!

Continue straight ahead on Holywell Street to a tiny, original, cobblestone street on your right. Look for a sign to the Bath Place Hotel and take that path past this old hotel to the Turf Pub which is also very old. Stop for a pint or wander through the pub to New College Lane. Look right at the Bridge of Sighs but walk left, past the House of Haley (Comet) to New College. If you go inside New College, you will see some of the original city walls in its beautiful gardens. Also look for the cloisters and the chapel. Evensong is about 5:00 pm during term.

Continuing on New College Lane, notice the small, amusing heads at the top of the building on your left. You will come to High Street and turn left to Magdalen College on the left before the bridge. This college has an extensive loop walk called Addison’s Way that is covered with daffodils in the spring. It is also possible to rent a boat just past the entrance to Magdalen College and punt—push with a long pole—not as easy as it looks, but very “Oxford.”

The Botanic Gardens are just opposite Magdalen College on High Street. The roses in front are free! Cross High Street carefully and walk back toward town. Turn left on Merton Street which is also an original cobblestone street passing Merton College, reputed to be the first of the Oxford colleges. Merton Street turns right. Look for a little path to the left which will take you to Christ Church Meadow. Christ Church will be on your right and the garden of Alice in Wonderland is adjacent to it. There is a lovely, long, loop path from here to the Cherwell River. Return to Christ Church and go to Aldates Street, passing the Museum of Oxford and the Town Hall which you can enter. Upstairs is an impressive room and sometime-concert hall.

You are now back to High Street. Cross it and continue on Cornmarket, a pedestrian street, to Market Street. Turn right and look right for the Covered Market that has been there since Oxford began--now very upscale but fun, and good snacks. Return to Market Street (if you don’t get lost in the market) and continue to your right on Market Street. Cross Turl Street and continue on Brasenose Lane. It will bring you to Radcliffe Camera, the original Bodleian Library. If the weather is good, turn right, then left and enter St. Mary’s Church from the back—the church library is the site of the first Oxford classes--and climb the tower for a fee and a good view. There is also a good cafeteria. Return to the Radcliffe Camera and walk past it, looking for the first purpose-built university buildings. The doors are still labeled in Latin. The first purpose-built college room is open to the public for a fee. Most of the buildings in this old square are not open to the public. This brings you back to The Sheldonian Theater and Broad Street.

Cross Broad Street and continue straight ahead on Parks Road. You will pass the University Museum on your right. The fascinating Pitt Rivers Museum is inside and to the left of the dinosaurs. It is chock-a-block with fascinating, imperial collectibles. Continuing on Parks Road brings you to University Parks, another lovely, loop garden path. When Parks Road merges with the Banbury Road, turn left and look for the Old Parsonage Hotel on the right if you are ready for tea. If you turn left, you will pass St. John’s College again on the left. The time may be better for an afternoon garden walk. The Eagle and the Child, locally known as the Bird and the Babe, is the pub across the street where Tolkien and C.S. Lewis met regularly, if you are ready for more than tea.

Continuing on St. Giles will bring you full circle back to Beaumont Street. Turn right and left on Gloucester Street to return to Gloucester Green. Check the bus schedule to Bleinheim Palace for another full day exploring the birth place of Churchill and the charming town of Woodstock. Remember that Oxford is also a good starting point for the lovely Cotswold Villages and Cotswold Wildlife Park and Gardens open from April to October, in Burford.