An Oxford day built around the Bodleian Library tour

Getting to Oxford

Oxford is an easy day trip from London. Trains from London and from Birmingham take less than an hour, with regular services by Great Western Railway, Chiltern Railways and CrossCountry. The main station, Oxford, is about a mile west of the Bodleian.

Chiltern trains from London Marylebone also run to Oxford Parkway, four miles north of the library. From Parkway you continue by bus, taxi or bike. If you are staying near Marylebone, this can be the simpler route; otherwise the main line takes you to Oxford station, closer to the centre.

By coach, the Oxford Tube runs regularly between London and Oxford. By car, think twice. Oxford runs a traffic filter scheme, with fines for cars that pass through a filter without a permit, and parking near the library is very limited. The library itself encourages visitors to use the Park and Ride, which has five sites around the ring road with regular buses into the centre.

From the station to the Old Library

From Oxford station it is a 15–20 minute walk to the Old Library, through the city centre. From Carfax Tower, the crossroads at the heart of the old town, it is about five minutes. Most central bus stops are a short walk away.

The Old Library's address is Catte Street, Oxford OX1 3BG. With a tour ticket you can go straight there: come through the Great Gate on Catte Street into the Old Schools Quadrangle, or enter from Radcliffe Square on the south side. The Weston Library, across Broad Street, is the place for coffee, toilets and the free exhibitions before you go in.

If you cycle, there are bike racks on Catte Street opposite the Great Gate, on Broad Street, and at the corner of Parks Road by the Weston Library. Blue Badge holders have nine spaces nearby, four on Broad Street and five on Parks Road.

Choosing your tour time

The 60-minute tour runs daily, within library opening hours of 9.00–17.00 on weekdays and 10.00–17.00 at weekends. Which time suits you depends on how you are arriving and what else you want to do.

A late-morning tour works well for a day trip from London: you arrive, walk in, take the tour, and have the whole afternoon for the rest of the city. An afternoon tour suits people staying overnight, and pairs nicely with a quieter lunch beforehand. Blackwell Hall in the Weston Library is busiest from about 11am to 2pm; on weekdays it is calmer before 11am and after 3pm.

Whichever you choose, leave a margin. Trains run late and the walk from the station takes longer with luggage. Your tour time is when the group sets off from the Proscholium, so plan to be in the quadrangle a few minutes before. A missed tour cannot be refunded or moved.

A morning loop: Weston, tour, Radcliffe Square

Start at the Weston Library on Broad Street. Its ground floor, Blackwell Hall, is free and opens at 9am on weekdays and 10am at weekends. See whatever exhibition is on, have a coffee in the Bodleian Café, and browse the shop.

Cross Broad Street and walk round the Sheldonian Theatre to Catte Street and the Great Gate. Inside the Old Schools Quadrangle, look up at the Tower of the Five Orders, and at the painted names of the old schools over the doors. Then go through the glass doors behind the statue for your tour.

The tour ends upstairs in Duke Humfrey's Library. When you come back out, walk south through the quadrangle into Radcliffe Square. The Radcliffe Camera stands in the middle, the round, domed library built in 1737–49 to designs by James Gibbs. You cannot go inside on this tour, but the square is open, and it is the classic view of Oxford.

The whole loop takes two to two and a half hours at an easy pace.

An afternoon version

If you arrive at midday, turn the loop around. Walk from the station through the centre to Radcliffe Square first and see the Radcliffe Camera in the early afternoon light. Then step north through the gate into the Old Schools Quadrangle, take your tour, and come out on Catte Street.

From there it is a minute to Broad Street and the Weston Library. By mid-afternoon on a weekday Blackwell Hall is quieter, the café is still open until 16.30, and the exhibition galleries are open until 17.00. It is a calm way to end the day before the walk back to the station.

If you prefer to end higher up, the Sheldonian's cupola looks out over the same rooftops you have just been under. Check its opening hours on the day, since it is a working ceremonial building.

Staying the night

With two days, split the city. Give the first to the academic quarter: the Weston Library, the tour, Radcliffe Square, the Sheldonian and New College Lane. Give the second to the Ashmolean and a longer walk, so you are not trying to fit museums and the tour into the same afternoon.

Staying over also helps with tickets. If your preferred day is sold out, a second day in Oxford doubles your chances of a place on the tour. Hold both dates with us and we will tell you which one opens first.

If your day turns out to be an event day

The rooms on the tour are still used for University ceremonies, private events and filming, and on those days the library runs no 60-minute tours. In autumn 2026 the library has listed 20, 30 and 31 October and 1, 3, 6, 7, 13, 14 and 19 November as days without them. Our calendar greys those dates out.

If your only day in Oxford is one of them, the outdoor parts of the loop are still yours: the quadrangle when its gates are open, Radcliffe Square, the Sheldonian from outside and the free Weston Library. Better still, check the calendar before you buy train tickets, and choose a day when the tour runs.

Sights within five minutes of the Old Library

The Sheldonian Theatre sits immediately behind the Divinity School on Broad Street. Christopher Wren designed it, and it was built in 1664–69 for University ceremonies, concerts and lectures. Its cupola is open to visitors, reached by a staircase, with windows looking out in every direction over the centre.

The Bridge of Sighs, properly Hertford Bridge, is a few steps east along New College Lane from Catte Street. It is a covered skyway joining two parts of Hertford College, completed in 1914 to a design by Sir Thomas Jackson.

The Clarendon Building, between the Sheldonian and the Weston Library, was built in 1712–13 for the University Press and has belonged to the Bodleian since 1975. You walk past it on the way from Broad Street to Catte Street.

The Ashmolean Museum is a slightly longer walk west along Broad Street and Beaumont Street. Admission is free and it is open every day, 10am to 5pm.

Eating and drinking

The Bodleian Café is in Blackwell Hall at the Weston Library, open Monday to Friday 9.00–16.30 and at weekends 10.00–16.30, with last orders fifteen minutes before closing. It serves soups, salads, sandwiches, hot dishes, cakes and pastries, with vegetarian and vegan choices, and you can sit in the atrium or outside on the colonnade overlooking Broad Street.

Food and drink, including bottled water, are not allowed in the Weston Library's exhibition galleries, so finish your coffee before you go in.

With children

The 60-minute tour is for ages 11 and over, and children must come with an adult. If your family includes younger children, plan the day so that one adult takes the tour while the other stays with them, or choose a different day's activity together.

The Weston Library is a good base for families. Its free ground floor has the exhibitions, a Space for Reading stocked with books for adults and children, and the Toddleian, a soft corner with books and toys for babies and toddlers behind the café. The café holds the Family Café Standard from Kids in Museums, and there are accessible toilets with baby changing on the ground floor.

Older children who have read or seen Harry Potter will enjoy the tour: the library says the Divinity School appears as the infirmary in the films.

Access and pace

Most of the walk between the Weston Library, the Old Schools Quadrangle and Radcliffe Square is on level paving. The Weston Library's public areas are step-free. On the tour itself, the Divinity School, Convocation House and Chancellor's Court are wheelchair accessible, but Duke Humfrey's Library is reached only by stairs and there is no lift.

The tour is about an hour, mostly standing. Hearing loops linked to the guide's microphone are available on request, and assistance dogs are welcome. If you need any of this arranged, tell us when you book and we will pass it to the tours team ahead of your visit.

Weather, bags and what to bring

Oxford's sights are close together but mostly outdoors between buildings, so bring a layer and an umbrella whatever the season. Leave wet umbrellas and coats on the rack outside the Weston Library galleries if you visit an exhibition.

Travel light. Large items such as rucksacks and wheeled cases are not allowed in the Weston Library galleries, and the library has no storage for large bags. Do not leave bags unattended anywhere on the site. A small bag, your phone with the e-ticket, and comfortable shoes for the stairs are all you need.

Booking the tour for your day

Tickets for the 60-minute tour go on sale online at 9am UK time on the 1st and 15th of each month, each release covering about a fortnight of dates. The library says they often sell out online, and some days have no 60-minute tours at all because of University events.

Book as soon as your date is released, or hold it with us before that at no cost. We check the release morning for you, and only ask you to pay once your place can be booked. Then all you have to plan is the train.