The Turf Tavern
A thirteenth-century Oxford tavern hidden down a cobbled passage, built against the medieval city wall.
A thirteenth-century Oxford tavern hidden down a cobbled passage, built against the medieval city wall.
Part of the charm is the approach. We duck through St Helen's Passage, a sliver of a cobbled walkway that squeezes between Holywell Street and New College Lane, right beside the Bridge of Sighs, and suddenly there it is at the dead end: low ceilings, stone walls and a jumble of small rooms tucked in against a surviving stretch of the medieval city wall. The building grew out of a cluster of old cottages on thirteenth-century foundations, and it has been pouring pints in one form or another since the late eighteenth century, first as an alehouse called the Spotted Cow. It sat just outside the reach of the colleges back then, which is rather the point of it still.
Outside, a run of walled courtyards opens up beneath the old ramparts, each one a little world of its own. In summer they fill with sunlight and the low hum of conversation; in the colder months the pub lights the braziers and the glow from the bar carries you through. It is a real Greene King house rather than a museum piece, so the ales rotate, the crowd is a happy mix of students and visitors who found their way down the lane, and the whole place still feels like a secret even though it plainly isn't one. The bar sign has called it “an education in intoxication” for years, and after an afternoon in the garden you tend to see the point.
The Turf is genuinely hidden, so the first visit is half the fun. From Broad Street, aim for the Bridge of Sighs on New College Lane and look for the mouth of St Helen's Passage, once known as Hell Passage, tucked in beside it; the alley is barely shoulder-width and easy to walk straight past. There is no car park, which is no bad thing, because the pub sits in the heart of the old university quarter and is best reached on foot. We tend to leave the car on the edge of the city or come in by park and ride, then make an afternoon of it.
For somewhere so tucked away, the Turf has collected a remarkable roll call. Bill Clinton is said to have not-inhaled here as a Rhodes Scholar, the cast and crew of the Harry Potter films drank here between shoots, and it has turned up on screen in Inspector Morse. C.S. Lewis, Stephen Hawking and a long line of Oxford students have all called it a local at one time or another. None of that matters much once you are actually sitting there with a pint under the wall, and that is the charm of it. It wears its history lightly and lets the garden do the talking.
The Turf works best as one stop in a slow day out in Oxford. The passage spills you out among the colleges, so it pairs naturally with a wander round the quads, an hour in the Ashmolean Museum, or a browse through the covered market. If you fancy comparing hidden pubs with grand ones, The Bear Inn is the tiny old rival a few streets south, and Quod on the High is the place for a proper sit-down lunch afterwards. For the wider picture, our guide to eating and drinking in the area runs from village locals to city restaurants and everything between.
“Every time I go I forget quite how hidden it is. You turn down that alley half-convinced you've got it wrong, and then there's this perfect little pub waiting at the end.”
All of this on the doorstep, and your own thatched cottage to come home to. Sleeps seven, less than a mile from Soho Farmhouse.