The King's Arms
A 1607 corner pub gazing across at the Bodleian, steeped in centuries of Oxford life.
A 1607 corner pub gazing across at the Bodleian, steeped in centuries of Oxford life.
There is something quietly reassuring about the King's Arms. It sits at one of the most storied crossroads in central Oxford, on the corner of Parks Road and Holywell Street, gazing across at the Bodleian and a short walk from the Sheldonian Theatre. It has stood here since 1607 and is often called the oldest pub in the city, yet it never plays on any of that. The rooms are broad and well lit, the ceilings higher than you might expect from a building of this age. Students spread textbooks across the tables, tutors hold court in the corners, and visitors wander in after a morning in the libraries without quite knowing how they got there. It has been a Young's pub since 1991, so the ales are kept properly, and the food is honest pub cooking rather than anything that reaches for a rosette.
We like it best on a quieter weekday, when you can claim a table by the window and watch the parade of cyclists and gowned undergraduates outside. It pairs well with a morning at the Bodleian, a wander through the University Parks or a look round the colleges, all of which are within a few minutes' walk. From the cottage the drive is about 35 minutes; we tend to park at one of the city's park-and-rides and take the bus in, because central Oxford and cars have never been friends. The King's Arms is the kind of place that rewards you for simply sitting still for a while, which is not a bad way to end a day of walking round one of the loveliest cities in England.
If you have read much twentieth-century English writing, you have probably drunk here by proxy. The pub is bound up with the group of poets and novelists known as the Movement in the 1950s, and the roll call of former regulars runs to Philip Larkin, Kingsley Amis, Iris Murdoch and Thom Gunn. Owned to this day by Wadham College next door, it wears its literary history lightly, which is exactly why it works. Nobody is going to hand you a plaque. You simply take your pint, find a corner, and join a very long line of people who have done the same. There is a local boast that the King's Arms has the highest IQ per square foot of any pub in the world, and on a term-time evening, listening to the tutorial arguments at the next table, you half believe it.
This is a traditional city-centre pub rather than a destination dining room, and that is the appeal. Come for a good pint and a plate of something unfussy, not for a tasting menu. A few things worth knowing before you go:
Opening hours and menus change with the seasons, so it is always worth a quick check before you set off. We would rather send you to the official site for the current details than print something here that has gone out of date.
“If I'm spending a day in Oxford, this is where I end up. No fuss, proper pints, and you're sitting opposite the Bodleian. Hard to improve on that.”
All of this on the doorstep, and your own thatched cottage to come home to. Sleeps seven, less than a mile from Soho Farmhouse.