Insight Guides Great Breaks Oxford (Travel Guide eBook)

By Insight Guides

Insight Great Breaks Guides: pocket-sized books to inspire your on-foot exploration of the best of the British Isles.

Explore the best of Oxford with this indispensably practical Insight Great Breaks Guide. From making sure you don't miss out on must-see attractions like Magdalen College, the Ashmolean Museum and the Bodleian Library, to discovering hidden gems, including Treacle Well and the Painted Room, the easy-to-follow, ready-made walking routes will save you time, help you plan, and enhance your Great Break in Oxford. 

· Practical, pocket-sized and packed with inspirational insider information, this is the ideal on-the-move companion to your trip to Oxford
· Features 12 detailed walking tour itineraries, including Quads, Meadows and Gardens and Where Town Meets Gown 
· Overview section features concise insider information covering everything from landscape and location, to history and culinary highlights
· Top Ten section takes you to the heart of your destination, from Christ Church to the Sheldonian Theatre 
· Rainy Day recommendations offer plenty of options, whatever the weather
· Invaluable itinerary maps and practical Travel Tips section ensure effortless exploration 
· Inspirational colour photography throughout

About Insight Guides: Insight Guides is a pioneer of full-colour guide books, with almost 50 years' experience of publishing high-quality, visual travel guides with user-friendly, modern design. We produce around 400 full-colour print guide books and maps, as well as phrase books, picture-packed eBooks and apps to meet different travellers' needs. Insight Guides' unique combination of beautiful travel photography and focus on history and culture create a unique visual reference and planning tool to inspire your next adventure.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Insight Guides
• Release date: Apr 1, 2019
• ISBN: 9781789198119

Insight Guides

Pictorial travel guide to Arizona & the Grand Canyon with a free eBook provides all you need for every step of your journey. With in-depth features on culture and history, stunning colour photography and handy maps, it’s perfect for inspiration and finding out when to go to Arizona & the Grand Canyon and what to see in Arizona & the Grand Canyon. 

Book preview

How To Use This E-Book

This Great Break has been produced by the editors of Insight Guides, whose books have set the standard for visual travel guides since 1970. With ­top-­quality photography and authoritative recommendations, these guidebooks bring you the very best routes and itineraries in the world’s most exciting destinations.

Walks and Tours

The clearly laid-out walks and tours in this book feature options for walking or using public transport wherever possible. The emphasis is on family fun, wholesome outdoorsey activities, local festivals, and food and drink. There are loads of great holiday ideas: kids’ stuff, best beaches, historic pubs, literary connections, unique shops, and – crucially with our Great British weather – what to do on a rainy day.

We recommend reading the whole of a route before setting out. This should help you to familiarise yourself with it and enable you to plan where to stop for refreshments – options are shown in the ‘Eating Out’ box at the end of each tour.

Introduction

The routes are set in context by this introductory section, giving an overview of the destination to set the scene, plus background information on food and drink.

Directory

Also supporting the walks and tours is a Travel Tips section, with a clearly organised A–Z of practical information. There is a comprehensive round up of sports and activities in the destination, recommendations for themed holidays, plus our pick of the best places to stay.

Getting around the e-book

In the Table of Contents and throughout this e-book you will see hyperlinked references. Just tap a hyperlink once to skip to the section you would like to read. Practical information and listings are also hyperlinked, so as long as you have an external connection to the internet, you can tap a link to go directly to the website for more information.

Maps

All key attractions and sights mentioned in the text are numbered and cross-referenced to high-quality maps. Wherever you see the reference [map] just tap this to go straight to the related map. You can also double-tap any map for a zoom view.

Images

You’ll find lots of beautiful high-resolution images that capture the essence of the destination. Simply double-tap on an image to see it full-screen.

About Insight Guides

Insight Guides have more than 40 years’ experience of publishing high-quality, visual travel guides. We produce 400 full-colour titles, in both print and digital form, covering more than 200 destinations across the globe, in a variety of formats to meet your different needs.

Insight Guides are written by local authors, whose expertise is evident in the extensive historical and cultural background features. Each destination is carefully researched by regional experts to ensure our guides provide the very latest information. All the reviews in Insight Guides are independent; we strive to maintain an impartial view. Our reviews are carefully selected to guide you to the best places to eat, go out and shop, so you can be confident that when we say a place is special, we really mean it.

© 2019 Apa Digital (CH) AG and Apa Publications (UK) Ltd

Table of Contents

Oxford’s Top 10

Overview: A Tale of Two Cities

The University

Town and Gown

Economy and Industry

Food and Drink

Cafés

Pubs

Food Shopping

Tour 1: The Heart of the University

Bearded Ones

Science Museum

Original University Press

Sheldonian Theatre

Bodleian Library

Duke Humfrey’s Library

Old Schools Quadrangle

Radcliffe Camera

All Souls

Brasenose College

Church of St Mary the Virgin

The Interior

Oxford Movement

Feature: Music and Theatre

Tour 2: Around New College

New College Lane

Halley’s House

New College

Chapel and cloisters

Gardens

Queen’s Lane

St Edmund Hall

The Longwall Garage

Church of St Cross

St Catherine’s

Holywell Street

Bath Place

Tour 3: Where Town Meets Gown

Martyrs’ Memorial

Broad Street

Balliol College

Trinity College

Blackwell’s

Turl Street

Exeter College

Lincoln College

Covered Market

Golden Cross Yard

Carfax

Painted Room

St Michael-at-the-Northgate

Back to the Start

Feature: Oxford Waterways

Tour 4: Quads, Meadows and Gardens

Oriel Square

Corpus Christi College

Merton College

Mob Quad and the Old Library

The chapel

Dead Man’s Walk

Christ Church Meadow

Botanic Garden

The garden layout

Tour 5: The High Street

Traffic Calming

Historic Facades

Ancient Inn

Oxford University Press Bookshop

University College

The Queen’s College

Sycamore Tree

Examination Schools

Magdalen College

The Bell Tower

A series of quadrangles

Addison’s Walk

Magdalen Bridge

Tour 6: From Carfax to the River

Oxford Town Hall and Museum

Museum of Modern Art

Pembroke College

Christ Church

The cloisters

The Cathedral

The Hall

Tom Quad

Quad to quad

Bate Collection

Folly Bridge

Tour 7: West of the City Centre

Bonn Square

Nuffield College

Oxford Castle

The Old Brewing District

Oxford Canal

Detour to Osney and Beyond

Gloucester Green

New Inn Hall Street

Oxford Union

Feature: Literary Oxford

Tour 8: Jericho and St Giles’

Ashmolean Museum

History

Antiquities

Former Royal Palace

Worcester College

The college fabric

The gardens

Town Meets Gown

From Rags to Riches

Somerville College

Elusive Observatory

St Giles’

Tour 9: St John’s and the North

St John’s College

Keble College

University Museum

Pitt Rivers Museum

Wadham College

Towards North Oxford

North Parade

Tour 10: Port Meadow and Beyond

Across the Meadow

Treacle Well

Godstow Nunnery

Tour 11: Excursion to Boars Hill

Getting There

Jarn Mound

Tour 12: Excursion to Woodstock

Town History

Oxfordshire Museum

Blenheim Palace

State Rooms

Outdoor attractions

Active Pursuits

Sports and Activities

Bowling

Cycling

Golf

Hot-air ballooning

Ice skating

Kayaking

Swimming

Walking

Children’s Activities

Themed Holidays

Culture and Art

Horse riding

Narrow boats

Walking and nature holidays

Practical Information

Getting There

By plane

By car

By bus

By train

Parking

Getting Around

Public transport

By car

Hire cars

Bike rental

Taxis

Going Green

Facts for the Visitor

Disabled travellers

Emergencies

Opening hours

Tourist information

Entertainment

Cinema

Nightlife

Accommodation

Oxford City

Outside Oxford

Websites

Oxford’s Top 10

From punting on the River Thames to grandiose historical colleges and the oldest botanic garden in Britain, here are at a glance the top sights, museums and activities of this fascinating city.

Magdalen College. Dominating the eastern end of the High Street, Magdalen has a tower, cloisters, quads galore and even a deer park. For more information, click here.

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Punting on the Thames. View the spires of Oxford from a punt on the river while sipping Champagne and tucking into a picnic. For more information, click here.

Corrie Wingate/Apa Publications

Ashmolean Museum. The oldest museum in the country has a superb collection of art and antiquities. For more information, click here.

Jerome Bump

Bodleian Library. The library complex holds the circular Radcliffe Camera and the Divinity School. For more information, click here.

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Sheldonian Theatre. Designed by Sir Christopher Wren, the Sheldonian – which seats up to 750 people – is used for university ceremonies, lectures and concerts. For more information, click here.

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Port Meadow. Adjacent to the River Thames, this extensive flood plain is a great place to take time out from city sightseeing. The nearby Perch Inn is a popular stopping point. For more information, click here.

Shutterstock

University Museum of Natural History. A fine natural history museum, with dinosaur skeletons, is set in a Gothic pile next to Keble College. For more information, click here.

VisitEngland/Experience Oxfordshire

Botanic Garden. The oldest botanic garden in Britain, featured in Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials trilogy, contains a wealth of floral treasures and a steamy hothouse. For more information, click here.

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Covered Market. This indoor market shelters traditional butchers, unique shops and cafés. For more information, click here.

Frank Noon/Apa Publications

Christ Church. Oxford’s largest college is home to the city’s cathedral. Its dining hall was used as a location for scenes in the Harry Potter films. For more information, click here.

Frank Noon/Apa Publications

Overview: A Tale of Two Cities

Although Oxford owes its world-wide fame to its string of colleges, the ‘city of dreaming spires’ is really a tale of two cities – of town and gown

Oxford lies approximately 50 miles (80km) northwest of London. The core of the city occupies a gravel terrace between the upper River Thames (a stretch known as the Isis) and the smaller River Cherwell (pronounced ‘Charwell’). The first major settlement was established here in Saxon times, probably on present-day St Aldate’s, and the original ‘oxen ford’ from which the town gets its name is thought to have been where Folly Bridge stands today.

The stunning Radcliffe Camera graces the Oxford skyline.

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Oxford

The University

The very first centres of learning in Oxford were monasteries established by the Augustinians in the early 12th century. But, as was the case elsewhere in Europe, the need arose for higher training than the local ecclesiastical schools could provide. In 1167, during a feud between Henry II and the King of France, the University of Paris was closed to scholars, and they came and settled in Oxford.

In the 13th century, friars from the most prominent religious orders came into the town to teach, living and studying in large town houses or ‘academic halls’. In the second half of the 13th century, rich, powerful bishops established their own centres of scholarship in the town, and the first colleges were born.

Today, the university comprises 38 colleges (eight for graduates only and one, All Souls, exclusively for Fellows – senior academic members), six permanent private halls and more than 24,000 students. While the appeal of the city is the medieval atmosphere of many of its college quadrangles, much has changed since the early days. In the 19th century, under the inspiration of men such as John Ruskin, the university was reformed from being a medieval, clerical institution based on privilege to a modern educational establishment devoted to teaching and scholarship. But the colleges remain, as they always were, autonomous corporations with their own statutes.

A cyclist’s city.

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Town and Gown

The arrival of students in Oxford created friction with townspeople. Back in 1209 a local woman was killed by a scholar, and two of his unfortunate colleagues were hanged in revenge. The university went on strike, and students fled in fear; some went to Cambridge where they founded Oxford’s ‘sister’ university.

The problem was not just one of envy. As the colleges expanded, they took over land occupied by the townsfolk and their businesses, filling the city centre with seats of learning. This led to large-scale poverty, a problem compounded by the migration of the cloth industry to rural areas, and by the Black Death in 1349, which wiped out one-third of Oxford’s population.

Matters came to a head on St Scholastica’s Day in 1355, when a brawl between scholars and the landlord of the Swindlestock Tavern at Carfax escalated into a riot. For three days academic halls were attacked by townsmen supported by a