The Randolph Hotel
Oxford's grandest old landmark, opposite the Ashmolean, made for a drink and a little history at the end of a day in the city.
Oxford's grandest old landmark, opposite the Ashmolean, made for a drink and a little history at the end of a day in the city.
The Randolph has stood on the corner of Beaumont Street since 1866, a great pile of Victorian-Gothic stone directly across the road from the Ashmolean Museum. It is the grand hotel of Oxford, and the nicest thing about it is that you do not have to be staying to enjoy the best of it. After an afternoon in the Ashmolean, or a wander through the colleges and covered market, there are few better ways to round off the day than to step in out of the bustle, sink into an armchair under the high ceilings, and order a drink or afternoon tea while the city carries on outside the windows.
A recent top-to-bottom refurbishment, under Graduate Hotels, has given the old place a new lease of life without stripping out its character. The panelled rooms, sweeping staircase and sense of occasion are all still there, just brighter and more comfortable than they were. It is the kind of interior that makes an ordinary afternoon feel like an event, and it is a lovely contrast to a day spent on your feet around town.
Half the pleasure here is the history. The hotel is woven into Oxford's on-screen life: it appeared again and again in Inspector Morse and later in Lewis, and its snug, wood-panelled bar is named the Morse Bar in the detective's honour. Colin Dexter, Morse's creator, was a regular. Settle in there with a proper cocktail or a single malt and you are drinking in the same corner the fictional inspector so often did. It is a small, dark, clubby room, exactly the sort of place a story like that belongs, and it is our first pick for a drink with a bit of atmosphere after a day in the city.
One for the fans: back at the cottage, our library holds a big collection of Colin Dexter's Morse novels. Borrow one during your stay and you can carry the mood home from the bar and read it by the fire, with the real Oxford it is set in just down the road.
Oxford is around forty minutes from Well Cottage by car, and the Randolph sits right in the heart of it on Beaumont Street. Central parking is famously tricky, so most of our guests use one of the park-and-ride sites on the ring road and take the bus in, which drops you a short walk away. Once you are on foot, the hotel is perfectly placed: the Ashmolean is opposite, the Oxford Playhouse next door, and the colleges, covered market and river all within an easy stroll. For the wider spread of ideas in the city and beyond, our Oxford guide and our eating and drinking guide gather our favourites.
“It's our reward at the end of an Oxford day. An hour in the Ashmolean, then straight across the road to the Morse Bar for a drink under those grand old ceilings. It never stops feeling like a treat.”
A grand day in Oxford, and your own thatched cottage to come home to. Sleeps seven, less than a mile from Soho Farmhouse.