3 hours in Oxford

[jolies1]

I am in Oxford for the first time next week and I have a morning to kill before the meeting I am going to. I’ll be travelling down late evening before.

What would you do if you only had 3 hours to grab a coffee and see some sights / do something interesting?

Go to G&Ds on Little Clarendon Street (just where the roads split at the north of the city) and eat ice cream. 😁

I would head to Broad Street where you will find Blackwells bookshop (there’s a cafe on the second floor), the Sheldonian Theatre, and Turl Street with lovely shops.

If you walk a little way down from Blackwells you will also find the Bodleian library. Nice cafe, free exhibition, good shop.

Pitt Rivers Museum.
It's a museum stuffed with random objects.
Is the ice rink still there? I used to go there all the time as a teenager in the ye olde days of the 20th century 😂

I'd walk around Christchurch meadow for half an hour - in at Christchurch and out at the funny gate that leads onto Merton Lane, then walk up through Radcliffe Square and the Bodleian to Blackwells. Browse some books, buy one then go for coffee at one of the many lovely coffee shops and read. You could visit a college or two. Many of the free ones only open in the afternoon, but some of the paid ones may be open all day. Magdalen and New are pretty (so is Worcester but it's right on the edge of town) Christchurch is formidable. Brasenose is pretty too. The Weston Library next to Blackwells often has free interesting exhibitions on. If the weather is bad, visit The Ashmolean museum or the Pitt Rivers or History of Science.

Look around the covered market, Ashmolean Museum (free and opposite The Randolph Hotel and has a rooftop restaurant). College gardens or maybe the botanical gardens. Pitt Rivers Museum. Browns for cake!

If the weather’s good I’d second Christchurch Meadow - although maybe I’d go in via Merton Street (simply because the street is adorable), turn right so you don’t miss the college entrance, pop into the loos behind the gift shop, then do the whole walk all the way round to Rose Lane. Then … Wander next door to the Botanic Garden. Tea and flapjacks and a magical wander around the whole place.

If that’s too much outside (or it’s raining) - Christ Church Picture Gallery is just the ultimate best place in the world.

Have fun!

Blackwells and pie in the Turf Tavern

Sounds like a plan!

Alternatively, one of my favourite strolls starts with getting off the bus at the Queen’s Lane stop; turn onto Catte St; along Parks Road and turn left onto Keble Road. Cut through St Giles’ churchyard onto Woodstock Road and turn into the Radcliffe Observatory Quarter. Coffee (bad coffee, epic building) at the Mathematical Institute (cafe is completely open to the public and they also have some of the best non-hotel loos in the city). Walk down past the vast new Schwartzman Centre to Walton St. Lunch wherever takes your fancy there (it’s a street replete with restaurants and coffee shops).

If you look on Google Maps you’ll see just how many world beatingly historic places this stroll takes you past - The Radcliffe Camera; The Bodleian, lots of colleges, museums, a glimpse of the University Parks. It isn’t a long walk so in three hours you’ll have time to stop and sightsee wherever you want.

Ashmolean just inches ahead of the ChCh Picture Gallery for me.

What @Overtheatlantic and @persisted said.

If you put Blackwells into your maps app and walk there to have coffee, that will be about 20 minutes. 20 mins with the coffee gazing at the Sheldonian outside the window.

Then put Merton College into the app. You’ll walk past the Bodleian, All Souls on your left, the Radcliffe Camera on your right, then cross the High, looking at everything as you go. Merton is another 5 minutes onwards. If you put the Head of the River pub in the app, it should take you down the path next to Merton to Christchurch Meadows, down to the river and out of the Meadows to the pub. Stop there if you want, or walk back up St Aldates to Carfax. If you then walk down the pedestrian Cornmarket, you have lots of options, including turning right down Market Street to the Covered Market, but you could just go on straight along to Beaumont street and drop into the Ashmolean museum. Whenever you’ve seen enough you’ll still be about 20 minutes walk back to the station.

Previous posters might know this but Turf Tavern is now a Greene King pub. Still a nice building though. I’d be tempted to go to the roof terrace of the new hotel that was Boswell’s or The Bear inn.

Even the top of the westgate has a nice garden and good view.

But @PermanentTemporary- you can’t send an innocent human down through Cornmarket - the trauma would live with her for decades …

And she’d never ever want to return to Oxford.

Bear in mind it's graduation season, so some of the colleges may be closed to the public.
There's some good routes already been mentioned above.
You will prob want to check off The Sheldonian, The Radcliff Camera (RadCam), The Bodlenian Library, Bridge of Sighs, Ashmolean Museum, Christ Church College/Meadows, The covered market, and a roof top drink/meal.
I'd give The Castle area a miss personally.

The Turf Tavern is nice - if you can find it!!
The Vaults next to the RadCam is a nice place to eat or get a coffee.
Enjoy, it's a pretty city.

If you want to feel like a proper local walk around swearing under your brief at the hordes of language students, then have an argument with Boris Johnson type in a pub and despise public school students who go to Oxford, bemoan the demise of the city centre for the development of the Westgate. Cycle through Queens Market and curse the bus drivers and fail to notice how beautiful it all is. 😁

Alternatively go to Pitt Rivers then walk past the Bridge of sighs, and down the alley to the Turf for a pint, walk past Radcliffe camera, down to christ church, walk around the meadow stick your head into christ church, back up through to the Station through as many backstreets as you can.

The Pitt Rivers museum is very good.

Blenheim Palace is lovely and well worth a visit. You can get ticket upgraded to free return for a year free once you bought day tickets.

Thank you all so much - I’m really excited for my trip now. I don’t often get much time to explore when on these trips so glad I can make the most of it - I will make sure to have an early night so I’m out early!