Oxford

A city of dreaming spires—or perspiring dreams? You can certainly sense the frenetic intellectual activity as you wander through the ancient streets of Oxford, one of England's most prestigious university cities. But there's more to Oxford than bicycles and boat races. It's a bustling town with a busy central shopping area. Increasingly, it's a commuter town to; less than an hour from London, Oxford's convenient location and young, cosmopolitan intellectual feel have pushed property prices to ridiculous highs in recent years.

Photo: Oxford: "The Turl" (also known as Turl Street). Photo by courtesy of Steve Cadman, published on Flickr in 2007 under a Creative Commons Licence.

The location

The centre of Oxford feels quite urban. Tucked inside the ring road (the collection of bypasses that encircle the town and form its effective boundary), it's easy to forget just how close you are to some truly glorious countryside. The Cotswolds are a stone's throw to your west; there's glorious countryside in Warwickshire and Northamptonshire to the north, and Buckinghamshire and Berkshire to the south. The countryside here is classic and English. Oxford's Thames (Isis) river is a delight at any time of the year and there's some fabulous woodland to explore in Wytham Woods just to the north west. Much like London, Oxford divides into distinct areas with their own particular character. For example, East Oxford (the area east of the Cowley Road) has an alternative, "green", indie, left-wing feel. If you need to escape Oxford's occasional intellectual claustrophobia without leaving the town, try a walk to a green space like the South Park or a wander along the river banks.

The economy

Oxford is many places in one. Most obviously, it's a collection of colleges loosely arranged to form a historic and high-grade University, although the Oxford colleges don't dominate the centre of town quite the way the colleges do in Cambridge's King's Parade and Triniy Street. Oxford actually has two universities—the famous old one and a much newer one called Oxford Brookes (formerly the polytechnic) located just outside the town centre in Headington. Oxford is also the important administrative centre for the county of Oxford—the county town if you like. Industry has long been important here as well. The Cowley car factory has been responsible for some of England's best known, home-grown vehicles, notably the Mini. Now scaled down and operated by BMW, it builds the Mini One.

Things to do

Historic attractions

Most people come to Oxford to enjoy the city's architecture—and there's no shortage of fantastic buildings to see and explore. Apart from the colleges, there's the Ashmolean Museum and Art Gallery and the Oxford University Museum of Natural History. The utterly fascinating and unquestionably unique Pitt Rivers Museum next door is a cross between an anthropological museum and a junk shop. Further afield, in the nearby village of Woodstock, there's Blenheim Palace, the historic home of Winston Churchill's family and now a World Heritage Site.

Culture

The University gives Oxford a distinct cultural edge over similar provincial towns. You can find music, theatre, and other cultural events happening most days in such venues as the Sheldonian Theatre and the Holywell Music Room, home of the popular Sunday morning Coffee Concerts and (incidentally) the oldest purpose-built concert hall in Europe, dating from 1748. If art's your thing and the Ashmolean is too traditional, check out the Museum of Modern Art in the centre of town. Discover more about Oxford's history at The Oxford Story on Broad Street. No cultural expedition to Oxford would be complete without a visit to the city's giant, subterranean academic bookshop, Blackwell's (there are actually several different Blackwell's shops dotted on either side of Broad Street, including specialist art and children's shops). At the opposite end of the scale, the ghost of Inspector Morse (a popular British TV series set in Oxford during the 1980s and early 1990s) still haunts the town. For a more colourful occasion, try the Cowley Road Carnival in July. In Spring, there's the Turl Street Arts Festival. Oxford also has its share of wacky culture, like the infamous Headington Shark. You can find theatre, music, performance, and pantomime at The Oxford Playhouse. For cutting-edge indie music, try The Carling Academy (formerly known as the Zodiac) on Cowley Road.

Sports

Oxford Sports Network is a good guide to sporting fixtures and news throughout Oxfordshire.

Shopping

As you might expect, Oxford has a mixture of traditional shops and modern ones. The central shopping street, the Cornmarket, is dominated by chain stores such as HMV, Boots, and WH Smith. An airless, anonymous modern shopping centre called The Clarendon runs from Cornmarket to Queen Street. More interestingly, try Oxford's world-famous Covered Market (not surprisingly, off Market Street), which reputedly dates from the ninth century, and the time-warp of historic shops along Turl Street (locally known as "the Turl").

Places to stay

There's a huge variety of accommodation in Oxford. At the luxury end of the scale, the Randolph Hotel (with its Morse bar) is an Oxford institution. More interesting in some ways is the Eastgate Hotel just off the High Street. The Royal Oxford is especially convenient for people travelling by train and has been attractively modernised in the last few years. Other more affordable places near the railway station include the Westgate Hotel, the River Hotel (with its spacious villa feel), and the spanking new modern YHA (right next to the train station too). If you're on a smaller budget, you might like to explore the huge selection of guesthouses and B&Bs, many of them dotted along the main arterial routes into town (the Banbury Road, the Iffley Road, and the Abingdon Road). If you walk along any of the main routes out of the town centre, you'll find a B&B sooner or later.

Places to eat

There's an equally diverse selection of eating places. Oxford eating institutions range from Le Manoir Aux Quatre Saisons (the famous Raymond Blanc restaurant just outside the city in Great Milton) at one end of the spectrum to The Nosebag, a wholesome whole-food type of restaurant on St Michael's Street. The Cowley Road's interesting selection of eating places reflects the diversity of that part of town. In the town centre itself, you can find the usual range of fast food restaurants and sandwich bars—and there's always Marks and Spencer's for an anonymous sandwich if you're short of time and imagination and too foolish to find a decent bakery.

Getting here

Oxford has a small but well-connected train station with fast services to Reading and London Paddington, and Banbury, Birmingham, and the North. There are local services to the Cotsworlds along the Moreton-in-Marsh line. Buses run from the grim, brown-brick Gloucester Green bus station in the centre of town (where you can also find the main tourist information centre) and are operated by companies such as Oxford Bus and Stagecoach. The Oxford Tube and Oxford Express are fast, relatively inexpensive coach services to London Victoria. Much of the centre of Oxford is car-free, so if you're driving here, be prepared to compromise in the interests of a more people-friendly environment.

Map

Here's a map of Oxford from Google Images. You can use the "Find businesses" tab and search box to find local businesses, places to stay, and so on.

More information

Oxford Tourism: The official tourist information guide. Or contact Oxford Information Centre, The Old School, Gloucester Green, Oxford, England, OX1 2DA. Telephone: +44 (0) 1865 726871.
Oxford City Guide: A great general guide to Oxford.
Oxford: An introduction from Wikipedia.