Anyone spending any length of time in London this summer might want the occasional day out of the city. Oxford is usually our day trip of choice, not least because of the market.
Attend a choral service in Christ Church Cathedral, a masterpiece of gothic ecclesiastical architecture of the 12th century- Frances Bissell
The Oxford Covered Market is a wonderful antidote to the blight of the average British high street, of which, I regret to say, Oxford has its fair share, full of the usual chains. But there is much else to compensate.
The market, open every day, including Sunday, is unique, as all the best markets are, offering not only high-quality food stalls but unusual individual shops selling shoes for awkward feet at Macsamillion, leather bags, Barbour jackets and saddler, Peruvian and Indian textiles, clothes and ethnic jewellery.
We always make a point of visiting M. Feller, Son and Daughter, High Class Butchers, as well as the Pie Shop and the fishmonger.
The Oxford Cheese Shop is where you will find, in season, the creamy Oxford blue, as well as a wide range of English and French cheeses, all in impeccable condition and sold by knowledgeable staff.
Artisan chocolates and ice creams are available in abundance, but a visit to the Cake Shop is a must for all aspiring pastry chefs. Everything to do with cake making is here, as well as a range of extraordinary celebration cakes.
Delis, cafés and snack bars keep you going as you shop, and also provide a useful parking place for the non-shoppers in your party.
Eating in Oxford is a pleasure. Perhaps start with a late breakfast at the Randolph Hotel, Oxford’s own grand hotel, or treat yourself to a real English afternoon tea there.
Several choices for lunch suggest themselves. Oxford is where Raymond Blanc began his career with a small brasserie on the outskirts of the city long before he opened Le Manoir aux Quatre Saisons.
Brasserie Blanc, housed in what used to be Le Petit Blanc, is reached after a fairly lengthy but pleasant walk through Jericho along Walton Street, which has several bric-a-brac and charity shops to please the bargain hunter. The menu is French, the cooking authentic brasserie-style food in a relaxed setting with friendly, competent service.
Lunch in the elegant Old Parsonage Hotel in St Giles, right in the heart of Oxford, is a treat. The restaurant is warm and welcoming, the menu, using locally sourced ingredients, is small, select and seasonal and the cooking homely and full of flavour.
There is a remarkably good wine list, as there is at the Cherwell Boathouse Restaurant, whose co-owner belongs to a family of well-known wine merchants. The cooking here is more flamboyant, more ‘cheffy’, and also very good. The setting is stunning, as the name suggests, right on the river, attached to the boathouse. Book in advance and ask for a window table.
Perhaps have a pre-lunch drink in The Eagle and Child pub, nicknamed The Bird and Baby by CS Lewis and JR Tolkien, who were habitués in their youth.
Built in 1650 as a tavern, this is by no means the oldest establishment in the city; Merton and Balliol Colleges had already been in existence for 400 years, and many more had been built in the intervening centuries, including the most imposing, New College, founded in 1379 as the College of St Mary of Winchester.
The older colleges simply referred to it as ‘New College’, a name which has stuck. If you only have chance to visit one, let it be this one. And try to attend a choral concert or service in the chapel. Or indeed, attend a choral service in Christ Church Cathedral, a masterpiece of gothic ecclesiastical architecture of the 12th century.
Oxford abounds in festivals and cultural activities, including the lively and innovative Oxford Playhouse, almost next door to the Randolph Hotel on Beaumont Street. Its café provides a welcome sit-down during shopping and sightseeing.
And almost opposite is the Ashmolean Museum. Based on John Tradescant’s cabinet of curiosities, which he opened to the public in his Lambeth home in the early 17th century, the collection then passed to Elias Ashmole, one of the founders of the Royal Society who acquired the Tradescant Collection and left it to Oxford University, which opened the museum to the public in 1683.
I’ve sometimes thought it would have been a generous and modest gesture on Ashmole’s part to have asked the university to name the establishment the Tradescant Museum after his benefactor, but perhaps modesty was not part of the make-up of a 17th-century man of letters.
The museum houses a fine permanent collection, as well as remarkable temporary exhibitions.
Most recently we saw Visions of Mughal India, the entire collection of the artist Howard Hodgkin, 115 paintings and drawings from India during the Mughal period (1550 to 1850), which Hodgkin began collecting as a schoolboy.
At the private viewing the artist complimented us for making the trek from London, and approved when I said we liked elephants too.
His must be the world’s most extensive collection of elephant paintings from India and we enjoyed them hugely, but also the fine court paintings, the exquisite detail of highly naturalistic flower studies, and above all, the enveloping and vivid warmth of the colour.
Make sure to leave enough time to walk along the river before returning to London. You can do this by Hyde Bridge as you return to the railway station.
Trains from London Paddington are fast and frequent, and if you book in advance and travel off-peak you can obtain considerably reduced fares.