Central Oxford Pubs

Below are listings and my haphazard information about all the pubs of central Oxford - 

the rest of the city is covered in the 'Oxford Suburbs' tab above.

The Bear (6 Alfred Street, OX1 4EH - web)
Fullers
🍴 Food served    🔆 Outdoor seating     ⟰Historical Inn 
A must visit on any tour of Oxford's historic pubs.  There are two compact rooms with the bar in the front whilst the back has floor-to-ceiling wood panels and a famous display of ties.
Uneven flooring and head-endangering low ceilings make this a rewarding experience for anyone who appreciates an intriguing old hostelry. 
Heated and covered outdoor seating is located on the square at the rear, but it kinda defeats the object of visiting such a characterful pub then sitting outside between the modern extension of Christ Church College and a tanning salon. 
Visit early in the day, grab a seat inside and enjoy this wonderful inn.

The Chequers (131 High Street, OX1 4DH - web)
Nicholsons
🍴 Food served     🔆 Outdoor courtyard          ⟰Historical Inn

Located down an alleyway from the High Street, The Chequers dates back to the 16th century and has an interesting past.  Originally a house owned by a moneylender, which is where the present name may derive from.  It then became a tavern circa 1500, at one time having the unusual feature of housing a small zoo - drawings depicting this can be found in the upstairs room. 
There are several distinctive different drinking areas over 2 floors, plus a pleasant outdoor courtyard.
As with all Nicholson's pubs there is a decent focus on real ales, including their house ale from St Austell alongside changing guest beers, although the range never seems as good as it was pre-Covid, in my humble opinion.

The Cow and Creek (12 New Road, OX1 1LT - web)
Marston's
🍴 Food served all day
Situated at the end of Queen Street, the shopping street that looks as though it's pedestrianised until you realise that a double-decker bus is edging along at your backside.
It's been a fair few years since I visited the Cow and Creek, so probably not fair to review it based on that experience (which was pretty drab).

There are a number of food and drink promos and this is a popular busy spot with a lively crowd on a weekend evening.

The Castle (24 Paradise Street, OX1 1LD - web)
Hook Norton
🍴🍕 Food served
Purchased and refurbished by Hook Norton brewery in 2017. Whilst their pubs are prolific in the north of the county, this is their only one in the city. 
The full range of Hook Norton beers is usually on offer, alongside some seasonal brews and quality guest ales.  

Handy for the bus stops and as an escape from shopping at the Westgate Centre directly across the road.  The pub itself has one small rectangular room beyond the bar, plus additional seating in the basement.

The Crown (59a Cornmarket Street, OX1 3HB - web)
Nicholsons
🍴 Food served     🔆 Outdoor courtyard       ⟰Historical Inn

Apparently Shakespeare favoured this coaching inn as a stopping off point on this way between Stratford and London.  There has been a pub on the site since 1364 and it has been called the Crown since 1600.  It would once have been much larger, with a well-known fast food restaurant occupying the original site of the inn.  The existing pub is located where the stables  once were. 
The cosy interior has lots of atmosphere, whilst the courtyard seating draws in the crowds on warmer days.  This is another Nicholson's pub with a good range of beers on the bar and a quality pub food menu.

The Eagle & Child (49 St Giles, OX1 3LU - web)
Nicholsons

2024 Update: The pub stayed firmly shut after the enforced national lock-down closure in 2020.
For a couple of years it looked like being turned into a boutique hotel and bar, but news came in October 2023 that the building had been sold by St John's College to the Ellison Institute of Technology.  They intend to create some meeting spaces for students, whilst continuing to operate the Eagle & Child as a pub. 
A tourist hot-spot thanks to its links to JRR Tolkien, Lewis Caroll and a collection of literary friends calling themselves the Inklings, who used to meet here.
The most appealing olde worlde part of the pub is the snugs at the front, although they are seldom vacant.  The Rabbit Room, where the Inklings met, is just beyond the bar, but sadly refurbishment and expansion has turned this into a thoroughfare rather than a self-contained room.  

The Four Candles (51-53 George Street, OX1 2BE - web)
Wetherspoons
🍴 Food served all day, including breakfast
The first 'Spoons in Oxford, converted from a Yates's Wine Lodge. Ronnie Barker grew up in the city and this pub is named in honour of him and one of the Two Ronnie's most famous sketches.
You know what to expect in a Wetherspoons pub - high tables at the front by the fruit machines generally inhabited by the regulars, regimented rows of 4-seater tables, subtitled news on the TV and a good range of food and drinks at reasonable prices. There's not quite the selection of real ales on the 10 hand pumps that there used to be, although a couple of guests and something local often feature.
A comfortable spot for the solo drinker in the daytime or start of the week, this turns more raucous on the weekend when enthusiastic boozers buy a sharer cocktail jug all for themselves and fall over on George Street later.

The Grapes (7 George Street, OX1 2AT)
Morgan Pub Co
🍴 Food served   ⚽ Sports on TV
The most 'authentic' pub on George Street, the Grapes dates back to 1820.
It has had four incarnations since I've lived in Oxford, having been a Bath Ales pub, then going all crafty under their Beerd moniker.   City Pub Co took over in 2017 and switched the name back to the Grapes, then West Berkshire Brewery arrived in 2019 to give it another refurbishment before sadly going into administration in 2021.

After a period of closure I'm happy to say it's open again in 2023 and better than ever.
Other than a couple of tables in the back corner, most of the seating is on high tables and stools.  The walls have been filled with a busy gallery of old pictures, there's a turntable and selection of vinyl LPs at the side of the bar, and two big screens for sports fans.
A superb beer range includes ever-changing cask ales alongside the regular Harvey's Sussex Best.  Keg lines run the length of the bar back offering a cracking selection.

The Head of the River (Folly Bridge, St Aldates, OX1 6LB - web)
Fullers
🍴 Food served all day      🔆 Outdoor seating

Located in an old riverside warehouse with an ancient crane as a decoration alongside the outdoor terrace.  Despite looking huge from the outside, the pub is relatively small with the biggest draw being the outside seating alongside the River Thames.  Accommodation is also offered in twenty rooms, which score highly in customer reviews.

The Jolly Farmers (24 Paradise Street, OX1 1LD)
Trust Inns
🔆 Outdoor seating
The Jolly Farmers is a popular LGBTQ+ friendly venue, open 'til midnight 5 days a week and until 2am on Fridays and Saturdays. It dates back to 1840 and apparently incorporates a section of the old city walls. There are lots of small drinking areas, beamed ceilings and a partly covered garden to the rear. To offset the olde-worlde charm, TVs play pop classic videos. Cask ale has recently been added to the drinks choice, usually from local brewers such as Loose Cannon and Hook Norton.

The Kings Arms (40 Holywell Street, OX1 3SP)
Young's
🍴 Food served    🔆 Outdoor seating (limited)
⟰Historical Inn

Owned by Wadham College, a handful of whose students live in rooms above. It has been a licensed premises since 1607. There are six separate rooms in total in an interior full of character. At the front are the largest spaces with a room to the side containing a food-order counter. Venture further back and you'll find three wonderful wood paneled small rooms with interior windows to let the light through. The Kings Arms seems to be permanently popular whatever time you visit, particularly appealing to tourists with some of Oxford's best known sights and picture-postcard locations on it's doorstep.

Lamb & Flag (125 St Giles, OX1 3JS)

Owned by St Johns College
⟰Historical

It's fantastic to see the doors of this historic in on St Giles open again after it spent a couple of years closed from 2020-23 with an uncertain future.
The front and rear sections of the Lamb & Flag are from different eras and have their own distinct character.  The front room is wood panelled and bright when the sun shines in the windows, now a larger space since the bar has been removed.
The back of the pub has thick, phone-signal-jamming stone walls and a bit more olde worlde character.
Real ales are from local breweries, alongside a line of kegs which tend to include craft offerings from XT, Tap Social and Siren, amongst others.

The Lighthouse (1 Park End Street, OX1 1HH - web)
🍴 Food served     🔆 Outdoor seating (limited)
Pub on the corner of the Worcester Street car park which has had something of an identity crisis in the past 20-something years. It was the Queens Arms, prior to the craze for Irish bars when it turned into Rosie O'Grady's. Next up it was The Dukes Cut, until the end of 2014 when it adopted it's latest guise. When it changed to this name it was smartened up with a light, modern decor. There is a popular small balcony at the side, jutting out over the Castle Stream which runs next to the pub. It is a busy and loud spot at the weekend thanks to it's proximity to several night clubs on the same street.

The Old Tom (101 St Aldates, OX1 1BT)
Greene King
🍴 Thai food menu      🔆 Outdoor seating
Dating back to 1769, this narrow two-room pub sits on St Aldates and takes its name from the bell in the tower of Christchurch college across the road. It is a pub of two halves: the rear area is given over to diners where Thai food is served, whilst the front section remains a down-to-earth drinking area in which you can sup your Greene King IPA.

The Oxford Retreat (1-2 Hythe Bridge Street, OX1 2EW - web)
Mitchells and Butlers
🍴 Food served
Many years ago, Oxford canal continued into a basin which occupied the site which is now Worcester Street car park.  The original waterside inn on the site of the Oxford Retreat was a rough 'n' ready boozer called the Nags Head.
It's had a few different identities since then, but the smart modern city bar which its turned into is unlikely to ever be called rough 'n' ready.  More's the pity.
They gave me a black serviette instead of a beer mat with my pint of Doom Bar, which I think says it all.
It is lively at the weekends when it's open into the wee small hours.

The Plough (38 Cornmarket Street, OX1 3HA)
Jan 2024 - Currently closed and undergoing refurbishment
Whilst I had some fine pints of XT in the Plough when it first opened, the focus seemed to drift towards dining and being met by a greeter at a podium in the doorway.
It's being refurbished by the City Pub Co.
Cornmarket once hosted many pubs before they disappeared over time and the street became predominantly occupied by shops. No.38 seemed a long-lost inn, housing menswear outfitters Austin Reed between 1924 to 2016 but remarkably returned as a pub at the tail end of 2017. 

The Red Lion  (14 Gloucester Street, OX1 2BN - web)
Mitchells and Butlers
🍴 Food served      🔆 Outdoor seating
Once part of the Firkin brew-pub chain, this was the Fuggle and Firkin, then the Goose at Gloucester Green, and (since 2008) The Red Lion. It has a large out-door patio at the rear, which is a rarity in central Oxford and probably the pubs biggest draw. The inside has a modern, smart look with many tables set up for dining. This seems to attract a lot of weekend bar crawlers, but the reasons for its popularity are lost on me.

Royal Blenheim (13 St Ebbs, OX1 1PT - web)
Everards
⚽ Sports on TV
A pub at the top of it's game for a number of years and a fine choice in central Oxford for quality and choice of real ale.
The Blenheim dates back to 1889 and is situated next to the Museum of Modern Art.
The ten hand-pumps always dispense several beers from White Horse and Titanic Brewery alongside some interesting guest ales. 
Just a few steps away from city-centre shopping mayhem, the Royal Blenheim offers up a pleasant retreat with quality beers.

St Aldates Tavern (108 St Aldates, OX1 1BU - web)
City Pub Company
🍴 Food served  

⚽ Sports on TV
 There are two seating areas in the open plan ground floor, either side of a central bar.
Located on a hectic street, it is equally popular with shoppers, tourists and locals and can get very busy. There is a function room on the first floor which opens to show big sports fixtures on a large screen, if not booked for a private event.
Beer-wise, there's a choice of up to five real ales, usually from local breweries, with Box Steam, Tring and XT making regular appearances. Siren and Wild Weather, both from neighbouring Berkshire, are also often available on the craft keg lines and there is sometimes a tasty real cider on offer. Food is highly rated here and they do a cracking Sunday roast.

The Three Goats' Heads (3a St Michaels Street, OX1 2DR)
Samuel Smiths
🍴 Food served

An unusual building, converted from a pizza restaurant in 1987.  There is no street-level room - steps provide you with a choice of a basement bar or the slightly cosier top bar.  At quieter times, just one of these will be opened.  Sam Smith's have no high-street names on sale - everything from beer to spirits to soft drinks are their own brand.  As far as I'm aware, this is the only pub in the city with a no-swearing rule - Sam Smith's implemented this for all their pubs in 2017.  You're also subject to Sir Humphrey's ban on digital devices throughout the chain, so don't visit here to have a foul-mouthed rant down your mobile phone. 

The Wheatsheaf  (29 High Street, OX1 4DF)
Oasis Pub Group   
🎱 Pool Table
Tucked down at alleyway leading off the High Street, The Wheatsheaf is Oxford's rock pub. For anyone of an age to remember when many pubs were rough around the edges and hadn't been refined for tourists and diners, this is a great blast from the past. No food. No smart modern decor. Just a rock jukebox, beer, cider, Jagermeister shots, a pool table and a good atmosphere. There are three ciders on hand pulls, plus four ales, with Robinsons Iron Maiden collaboration 'Trooper' being a predictable favourite here.
Sadly the upstairs music venue is no more.

Wig & Pen (9-13 George Street, OX1 2AU - web)
Greene King
🍴 Food served all day    ⚽ Sports on TV

Originally a dire city-bar called Copa, this was renamed and improved as the Wig & Pen in 2008.  It's had a recent refurbishment in 2016, keeping it fresh and smart.  A plethora of TV screens throughout make this a popular place to watch big televised sporting fixtures.  It's a Greene King house, although the beer range is reasonable with guest ales and GK seasonal brews on offer.  The food menu serves up a good selection of reasonably priced pub grub.

The Swan & Castle (40 Castle Street, OX1 1AY - web)
Wetherspoons
🍴 (Food served all day, including breakfast      🔆 Outdoor seating
Wetherspoons have some pubs in amazing buildings throughout the country, but it's safe to say this isn't one of them. It's an uninspiring large room in the ground floor of a development next to Oxford castle with flats above. As I've heard others say,
The plus points are that there is plenty of space (although it does get busy) and you've got all the usual good value food and drinks that the chain serve up.

White Horse (32 Broad Street, OX1 3BB - web)

Mitchells and Butlers

🍴 Food served        ⟰Historical Inn
Famed TV detective Inspector Morse enjoyed supping a pint of beer in the pubs of Oxford.  You can even find a Morse pub crawl and it's sure to take you here to the White Horse which features in three episodes of the show.  This connection is proudly advertised on a blackboard in front of the pub.  It's also one of he cities oldest, with a pub in this location back in 1551.  The current building was erected in the 18th century. 
What's limited my number of visits here is the size of the place which, especially as it's on one of Oxford's busiest tourist streets, can make it tough to get through the door let alone find a seat.  If you do manage though, it's a cosy place with good pub food and a choice of local ales.  There are no concessions to modern trappings here - no music, TV or games machines.



The White Rabbit (Friars Entry, OX1 2BY - web)
Old Angel Pub Co
🍴🍕 Pizza's, plus panini's at lunchtime
🔆 Outdoor seating
In a previous incarnation this was a rock pub called the Gloucester Arms. 
It's relatively small inside and it can be a little tough to get a table, with standing-room very limited.  It's worth a try, however, to sample the pizzas and local ales on offer.  Three hand pumps dispense a changing range of beers from Oxfordshire and surrounding counties. 
Pizzas are made by an Italian chef with ingredients imported weekly from Italy and certainly get my thumbs-up .  
They've recently expanded the outdoor seating area - yep, technically speaking you're in a car park, but this is covered and has the added bonus of heated seats.
Well worth checking out.

Turf Tavern (4-7 Bath Place, OX1 3S - web)
Greene King
🍴 Food served     🔆 Outdoor seating        ⟰Historical Inn
Another hugely popular tourist hot-spot, the Turf.
It's always classed as being difficult to find. Not located on a street, it's accessed via narrow alleyways between the houses.  
The front two rooms are the most traditional feeling, both with bar counters and limited seating.  Extensions have been added on multiple occasions, stretching the pub to the rear as far as they can go and squeezing in as much extra room and dining space as possible.  Sadly this has incurred on the nicest of the three courtyard drinking areas that surround it. 
Toilets are outside along one side of the pub and are very chilly in the winter months! 
There is a good range of beers available and you wouldn't instantly realise this is a Greene King house based on the choice on offer.
Certainly worth a visit, although be prepared to find it very busy and hectic at peak times - obviously folks are not having too much trouble finding it after all.