The Bear Inn
One of the oldest drinking houses in England, a pub on this spot since 1242: duck through the low doorway and settle in with a pint.
One of the oldest drinking houses in England, a pub on this spot since 1242: duck through the low doorway and settle in with a pint.
Whenever we take guests into Oxford for the day, The Bear is where we steer them once the colleges start to blur together. It sits on the corner of Alfred Street and Blue Boar Street, a couple of minutes from Christ Church and tucked just off the High Street, and it is genuinely easy to walk straight past if you don't already know it is there. Duck through the low doorway and the rooms are small, dark-panelled and low-ceilinged, the sort of space where taller visitors quickly learn to stoop. There has been an inn trading under this name in Oxford since 1242, which makes it one of the oldest drinking houses in the city, and the current building has stood on this spot since the seventeenth century.
The thing everyone remembers is the ties. Glass cases line the walls and ceilings, holding thousands of snipped-off neckties: regiment ties, club ties, school and college ties, gathered since the 1950s when a landlord began clipping a cutting from anyone who could name the club it came from, in exchange for a drink. It is a proper Fuller's pub rather than a gastropub in disguise, so the ales are well kept, the food is honest pub cooking, and nobody is ever in a hurry. On a quiet weekday afternoon you might share the bar with a couple of dons marking papers; on a Friday evening it fills with students and locals and the chatter spills out into the lane and the little courtyard garden.
Oxford is roughly a 35-minute drive from Well Cottage, so The Bear works best as part of a full day in the city rather than an evening out on its own. The pub has no car park of its own, which is normal for the centre of Oxford, so we usually leave the car at the Westgate car park or use the park-and-ride and walk in from there. Space inside is tight and it does not take bookings for the bar, so a weekday lunchtime or an early evening is a far more relaxed bet than a busy Saturday. Check current opening times on the pub's own site before you set off, as a small historic pub like this can vary its hours by season.
The Bear pairs naturally with a wander round the colleges, and there are a couple of other historic pubs within easy walking distance if you want to compare. The Turf Tavern is another famously hidden Oxford institution, reached down its own maze of lanes, and The King's Arms is a reliable town pub back in Chipping Norton for the drive home. For the fuller picture of where we eat and drink locally, our guide to eating and drinking in the area runs from village pubs to farm-shop cafés, and the Oxford day-out guide covers the colleges, the museums and the Covered Market that sit a few streets away.
“Genuinely one of those pubs that feels unchanged. Order a pint, look up at the tie collection, and try not to lose an entire afternoon.”
All of this on the doorstep, and your own thatched cottage to come home to. Sleeps seven, less than a mile from Soho Farmhouse.