Ciao.
― Citizen Sallys, Monday, 4 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
― electric sound of jim, Monday, 4 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
― CarsmileSteve, Tuesday, 5 March 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link
― That one guy that quit, Friday, 30 March 2007 15:04 (seventeen years ago) link
― That one guy that quit, Friday, 30 March 2007 15:06 (seventeen years ago) link
What should I do in Oxford/Oxfordshire today?
There are probably only so many times I can walk around Otmoor.
― djh, Sunday, 15 January 2012 10:45 (twelve years ago) link
Wittenham Clumps is good for a walk:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wittenham_Clumps
― good luck in your pyramid (Neil S), Sunday, 15 January 2012 12:02 (twelve years ago) link
Megalith Hunting at Wayland's Smithy!
(turn right at the White 'oSs)
― White Chocolate Cheesecake, Sunday, 15 January 2012 12:13 (twelve years ago) link
There was talk recently of doing another rolling psychogeographical ramble on the Upper Thames. Do any of that lot still post/read ILX any more? Mark H, are you around? I can't remember what Johnney B calls himself these days. Dutch Rhubarb Wars? Anyone?
― White Chocolate Cheesecake, Sunday, 15 January 2012 12:26 (twelve years ago) link
*I* can't remember what Johnney B calls himself these days and he's told me twice in the pub already. Any more times and he'll think I don't listen to him or something.
I've been meaning to sort out a walk from Abingdon south towards Dorchester for some time now (Wallingford might be too much of a trek, I'm not sure). Mrs Genie would be up for this too, I'm sure. This would involve getting the Oxford Tube or train to Oxford then a bus to Abingdon first but these are super mega quick, at least at weekends.
― Grandpont Genie, Monday, 16 January 2012 11:54 (twelve years ago) link
How far is Dorchester from Abingdon? How far is Wallingford? (I've looked on googlemaps but it's hard to tell) I don't think I've walked any of that bit of the river. That seems like it's a hop to Wittenham Clumps from Dorchester, though, which would be good.
Could you meet us at Oxford because you know what I'm like with local busses? Do you have a good map? (Trying to do walks without Ed and his million maps has been, um, problematic.)
Maybe I should just email people who don't post to ILX any more but ugh, herding cats. Really want to do this, though, it's been far too long.
― White Chocolate Cheesecake, Monday, 16 January 2012 12:21 (twelve years ago) link
National Trail's a good website for this sorta thing:
<a href="http://www.nationaltrail.co.uk/thamespath/downloads.asp?PageId=70">National Trail</a>
so 13.5 miles from Abingdon to Wallingford but with Dorchester a useful stopping off point for Wittenham Clumps.
I'll have to check to see if my Ordnance Survey map covers that area. Actually *finding* the OS map may be a bit of a problem since we moved house.
I also have something which is like an A-Z of all Oxfordshire, which is useful but somewhat frustrating, as there are pages which have VIRTUALLY NOTHING ON THEM.
E-mailing always good, belt and braces approach. Or e-mailing, ILXing and tweeting, belt, braces and piece of string approach.
― Grandpont Genie, Monday, 16 January 2012 14:11 (twelve years ago) link
oops, where did that semi-colon come from??? whatever....
― Grandpont Genie, Monday, 16 January 2012 14:12 (twelve years ago) link
Blimey, 13 miles might be a bit ambitious. Now I see why you wanted to make Dorchester the destination.
Is there a bus back from Dorchester? And more importantly, is there a pub? I suppose we can just cart a bottle of brandy up the hill and drink on the Clumps.
I don't actually know that I have anyone's current email address any more. Perhaps if we just shout "ASTON TIRROLD!!!" 3 times aloud Johnney B will reappear.
(Or perhaps we should start a new "Rolling Psychogeographical Walking" thread for ppl who don't care if Oxford is classic or dud.)
― White Chocolate Cheesecake, Monday, 16 January 2012 14:22 (twelve years ago) link
(revived for the weekend)
― djh, Friday, 20 January 2012 18:36 (twelve years ago) link
Any one recommend any walks within an hour's travel of Oxford/Kidlington?
― djh, Tuesday, 13 November 2012 23:45 (eleven years ago) link
was peppers burgers once an entirely different phenomenon or what
― Yorkshire lass born and bred, that's me, said Katriona's hologram. (thomp), Tuesday, 13 November 2012 23:53 (eleven years ago) link
It's changed hands at least once since this thread started. I went a few years ago when it had just reopened with new management (there was a tick-with-biro poll on the wall about whether to keep selling burgers or to do kebabs instead) and it was distinctly lacklustre so I've never been back, but I think it's changed hands again since.
I'm going to guess it's not what it was, but what it was was from a different time before meatwagons and the rehabilitation of the burger anyway.
Someone told me the new Byron's burger place on George St was good but I haven't got round to it yet and am additionally suspicious because a) it's on George St and b) there's a p. huge student discount, but I'm not a student
(looks upthread, winces, scrolls back down, never speaks of it again)
― a panda, Malmö (a passing spacecadet), Wednesday, 14 November 2012 10:39 (eleven years ago) link
You can get a fair distance in an hour! But how about
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wittenham_Clumpshttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uffington_White_Horsehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernwood_Forest
(Just places I used to as a kid, too young and too long ago to remember details of actual walks)
― Dog the Puffin Hunter (ledge), Wednesday, 14 November 2012 10:54 (eleven years ago) link
places I used to go. Or get taken to, rather.
Thanks Dog the Puffin Hunter.
I ended up on a circular walk from Icomb (which I suspect is just in Gloucestershire rather than Oxfordshire).
Bernwood Forest looks intriguing.
― djh, Wednesday, 14 November 2012 20:09 (eleven years ago) link
Where should we go within 90 minutes of Oxford, in the next three days, that won't be flooded?
― djh, Saturday, 29 December 2012 18:47 (eleven years ago) link
Otmoor supposed to be good for starlings/murmuration at the moment - apparently from 1530 onwards.
― djh, Monday, 31 December 2012 17:10 (eleven years ago) link
Oh yeah, I definitely want to see that someday.
― ledge, Monday, 31 December 2012 17:42 (eleven years ago) link
They may have gone ... we saw an owl though.
― djh, Tuesday, 1 January 2013 17:18 (eleven years ago) link
The in-laws want to stay in a hotel for their anniversary treat.
Due to their not great health, it would be ideal if it was some where with downstairs rooms and within about 20 minutes of North Oxford (so we can take them out in the day).
Any suggestions?
― djh, Saturday, 9 March 2013 22:54 (eleven years ago) link
No mention in this thread of the Oxford comma?
― Aimless, Sunday, 10 March 2013 04:48 (eleven years ago) link
I always thought this hotel looked nice... http://www.bathplace.co.uk
At least from the outside anyhow - I've never actually been in. It's on a lovely street though.
Plus it has ground floor rooms and is in the right end of town for your requirements.
― Barnaby, Hardly, Sunday, 10 March 2013 10:14 (eleven years ago) link
Thanks Barnaby.
― djh, Monday, 11 March 2013 17:50 (eleven years ago) link
yeah i have a friend who puts her parents there, it's supposed to be really nice and cute
― caek, Monday, 11 March 2013 18:04 (eleven years ago) link
Or anywhere between, say, Summertown and Woodstock?
― djh, Thursday, 14 March 2013 20:47 (eleven years ago) link
Sorry in advance for repeatedly hijacking threads with holiday requests.
A slight change of plan to the above: we're looking for a weekend break for the in-laws. They are suggesting the Cotswolds. Due to their health, they'd need a downstairs room. In an ideal world, they would enjoy evening entertainment of the Sinatra-impersonator type but that isn't essential. Ideas on places to stay and place to visit (given mobility is an issue) would be appreciated.
― djh, Tuesday, 16 April 2013 20:02 (eleven years ago) link
Anyone?
― djh, Thursday, 18 April 2013 17:35 (eleven years ago) link
the cotswolds are a mystery
― jonathan livingston seapunk (c sharp major), Thursday, 18 April 2013 17:55 (eleven years ago) link
Anyone walked the Oxford Canal north of Banbury? Trying to work out where is manageable to walk to to fit with public transport.
― djh, Sunday, 2 February 2014 12:14 (ten years ago) link
I can't believe it's been two whole years since the last Oxford walk. We didn't even climb the lumps, we just shuffled quickly past them in the dusk on the way to find a bus.
― a small viking themed quasi illegal outdoor rave I was DJing (Branwell Bell), Sunday, 2 February 2014 16:03 (ten years ago) link
Any nice places to ear near The Ashmolean?
http://www.ashmolean.org/
― xyzzzz__, Friday, 9 May 2014 12:00 (ten years ago) link
xyzzzz__ if you like Italian why not try Strada in Little Clarendon Street? A short walk from the Ashmolean, up the other end of St. Giles. Was there a week ago for lunch, it was great:
<a href="http://www.strada.co.uk/italian-restaurant/oxford">http://www.strada.co.uk/italian-restaurant/oxford</a>
for traditional pub fare, there's always the Eagle and Child, in St Giles itself.
Are you going to the Cezanne exhibition?
― Grandpont Genie, Friday, 9 May 2014 13:05 (ten years ago) link
I used to work at the Eagle & Child.
― Angkor Waht (Neil S), Friday, 9 May 2014 13:06 (ten years ago) link
Hi Grandpoint - yes I am. Eagle & Child looks ok.
― xyzzzz__, Friday, 9 May 2014 13:52 (ten years ago) link
I met Stevie Winwood and his wife in there once.
― Fizzles, Friday, 9 May 2014 13:59 (ten years ago) link
which I bet was nice :)
― xyzzzz__, Friday, 9 May 2014 14:07 (ten years ago) link
you could eat at the restaurant on top of the ashmolean. it's fairly decent in terms of passable-food-to-overpricedness, as far as oxford goes.
― ♛ LIL UNIT ♛ (thomp), Friday, 9 May 2014 14:12 (ten years ago) link
to be fair, pretty much everything in oxford centre is 'near the ashmolean'.
http://www.edamame.co.uk/
http://www.turlstreetkitchen.co.uk/menu/current
― ♛ LIL UNIT ♛ (thomp), Friday, 9 May 2014 14:15 (ten years ago) link
i think turl st is the one i'd come closest to recommending wholeheartedly. their coffee is awful, be warned
it was slightly baffling xpost. he talked about his studio in his home - some mansion near Oxford. His wife was v nice, American, and they'd just had a baby, who was with them. but I was only dimly aware of him, so spent much of the time secretly trying to locate who he was and some music I might know.
this sounds ok - http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2013/nov/24/magdalen-arms-oxford-restaurant-review-jay-rayner
but is on the other side of town. (not exactly far tho)
― Fizzles, Friday, 9 May 2014 14:20 (ten years ago) link
Thanks for the additional choices thomp and Fizzles - that Japanese does look nice, pass these onto friend I'm going with.
May stay @ Ashmolean restaurant - depends on the weather.
― xyzzzz__, Friday, 9 May 2014 14:29 (ten years ago) link
The trouble with Edamame is that it is hardly ever open (even when it's supposed to be).
― Grandpont Genie, Friday, 9 May 2014 15:00 (ten years ago) link
magd. arms was pretty good a couple years ago certainly
there's a good chinese (rated by er giles foden?) and ok korean near the train station, ok, will stop now
― ♛ LIL UNIT ♛ (thomp), Friday, 9 May 2014 15:00 (ten years ago) link
i realised i was going bald in the eagle and child
― caek, Friday, 9 May 2014 17:33 (ten years ago) link
Ta.
Why so, Caek?
― djh, Wednesday, 25 July 2018 16:45 (six years ago) link
river traffic is up i think and that's already a very slow bit of the thames, so i'm assuming there's more diesel in the water? but maybe its fine!
― 𝔠𝔞𝔢𝔨 (caek), Wednesday, 25 July 2018 16:54 (six years ago) link
new westgate centre: classic or dud? i'm no lover of shopping centres - stratford westfield is my idea of hell on earth - but i don't hate the new westgate. maybe it's because i visited in summer and got to appreciate the light and the views over the town, maybe it was the appealing mystery of trying to figure out how it fitted into the old westgate (visiting for the first time from the south entrance, one level below the old westgate and through what was the no-mans land of the multi storey car park, was very confusing). or maybe it's just an improvement on the extension of the centre that has appeared remarkably consistently in recurring dreams of mine over many years, a long wide dark tunnel, largely empty and somewhat ominous, stretching out over the oxpens road.
― home, home and deranged (ledge), Thursday, 26 July 2018 09:54 (six years ago) link
Westgate: I sort of ... can't be bothered with it.
― djh, Sunday, 12 August 2018 15:29 (six years ago) link
well fair enough it is just a shopping centre. I'm probably a wee bit more interested because it's not so far from my parents/my old house & route into town, and it is at least an improvement on a car park.
― home, home and deranged (ledge), Sunday, 12 August 2018 15:54 (six years ago) link
I could see how it would be interesting in a "route into town" sort of way. It doesn't suit me as it has pulled stuff away from my route to/from work and, I suppose, the feel of it isn't very me.
― djh, Sunday, 12 August 2018 18:08 (six years ago) link
I have a table at the Oxford Guild of Printers Wayzgoose at the Headington campus of Oxford Brookes this coming Saturday, if any of you fancy coming to say hello:
https://www.wayzgoose.info/events/oxford-guild-of-printers-wayzgoose/
There will be quite a lot of very brilliant printed matter on display, also a table with me sitting behind it (I'm "The Half Pint Press").
― Tim, Wednesday, 30 October 2019 14:25 (four years ago) link
Couldn't decide on a better thread to ask this but any idea how long Covid-19 tests are taking in Oxfordshire, specifically the Oxford Parkway site?
― djh, Thursday, 1 October 2020 19:50 (three years ago) link
Gah! 5+ days, seemingly ...
― djh, Saturday, 3 October 2020 15:50 (three years ago) link
anyone here from oxford & environs, what do *you* call the M40 cutting on the way to london officially known as the "Aston Rowant Cutting, also known as the Stokenchurch Gap or Aston Hill cutting"?
― ledge, Wednesday, 22 September 2021 19:52 (two years ago) link
this: https://goo.gl/maps/9wAaamF8GKA23j456
― ledge, Wednesday, 22 September 2021 19:54 (two years ago) link
"The Cut" is what we called it (I'm originally from Bicester)
― carson dial, Wednesday, 22 September 2021 20:20 (two years ago) link
What I really want to know is, does anyone call it chicken shit canyon, or similar? Supposedly because they sprayed the sides with the stuff to help grass grow and stabilise it. Don't know where I picked up the name from, I remember a teacher calling it chicken muck pass, not sure if he was bowdlerising it for our benefit. This information isn't on Wikipedia, I feel it needs to be saved for posterity but there are only a handful of references on the web in a couple of random forums.
― ledge, Wednesday, 22 September 2021 20:40 (two years ago) link
morning bump for this crucial investigation.
― ledge, Thursday, 23 September 2021 07:58 (two years ago) link
Any recommendations for Oxford(shire) Brutalist/Modernist buildings?
I've had the slightly wine-fuelled idea that I should compile myself a tour.
― djh, Wednesday, 20 October 2021 20:16 (two years ago) link
St. Catherine's College, the Denys Wilkinson Building, the Garden building at St. Hildas, the Florey Building, the Margery Fry House for a start?
― carson dial, Wednesday, 20 October 2021 20:42 (two years ago) link
DWB is a banger
wolfson college too?
― 𝔠𝔞𝔢𝔨 (caek), Wednesday, 20 October 2021 21:32 (two years ago) link
Maybe a little recent for you but the Bishop Edward King Chapel, Ripon College (in Cuddeston, just outside Oxford) is somewhere I’d like to visit.
― Tim, Thursday, 21 October 2021 06:58 (two years ago) link
St Cross building?
― woof, Thursday, 21 October 2021 09:39 (two years ago) link
Wadham college library?
Not brutalist but tooling around in google maps I just noticed the Blavatnik School of Government building next to Freud on Walton St which is pretty neat and passed me by (unsurprisingly as I haven't lived in oxford for over twenty years).
― namaste darkness my old friend (ledge), Thursday, 21 October 2021 10:50 (two years ago) link
There was a time (when I first moved to Oxford) when I thought Frevd's was a place of wonder. And then it suddenly seemed to be a waste of an amazing space. Haven't been for years, so don't know how it is currently being used. I guess it is airy?
― djh, Thursday, 21 October 2021 19:03 (two years ago) link
I was never 'cool' or clued in enough to go there much at all, glad it's still there though.
― namaste darkness my old friend (ledge), Thursday, 21 October 2021 19:21 (two years ago) link
This looks good for mooching:
https://bluecrowmedia.com/products/modern-oxford-map
― djh, Saturday, 17 February 2024 10:50 (seven months ago) link
looks good, I bet there are some hidden gems. the monstrously mysterious denys wilkson building may have been a formative influence on my penchant for brutalism, along with the nazi fortifications in guernsey, where we often holidayed.I was disappointed to find out (online, not in person) that the nosebag had closed. is georgina's in the covered market still open? google says yes but no reference on the covered market website.
― organ doner (ledge), Saturday, 17 February 2024 12:10 (seven months ago) link
Did my PhD in the DWB. sat at the top of the tower for the last year.
― 𝔠𝔞𝔢𝔨 (caek), Saturday, 17 February 2024 13:31 (seven months ago) link
was it a phd in opening a dark portal to the non euclidean realm of the elder gods?
― organ doner (ledge), Saturday, 17 February 2024 13:47 (seven months ago) link
I was disappointed to find out (online, not in person) that the nosebag had closed. is georgina's in the covered market still open? google says yes but no reference on the covered market website.
Was never a fan of the Nosebag and didn't mourn its passing.
Georgina's is still there, although the character of the Covered Market is very different now, ledge. There are two pop-up pubs now, for example.
Oxford Cheese Company is my main reason to visit it these days.
It's great that the Grapes is back open on George Street, complete with 3D bunch of grapes sign. Too bad they've taken away the wooden divides, but they now have a turntable and a stack of records which you can leaf through and ask them to play.
― Grandpont Genie, Saturday, 17 February 2024 14:33 (seven months ago) link
― 𝔠𝔞𝔢𝔨 (caek), Saturday, 17 February 2024 14:45 (seven months ago) link
x-post - the Covered Market is a curious thing. Like, there's a wine shop (an off-shoot of Eynsham Wine Cellars) and a pizza place side-by-side, with shared tables and a seeming agreement that you'd probably buy from both ... but it doesn't quite work with the utter grimness of the nearest toilets.
― djh, Sunday, 18 February 2024 21:59 (seven months ago) link
Did anyone buy that Modern Oxford Map? Going to make it a mission to take one photo of everything on there.
― djh, Wednesday, 26 June 2024 19:47 (two months ago) link
Have started on this plan.
Have managed photos of the Nuclear Physics Laboratory, Margery Fry and Elizabeth Nuffield Houses and Shops and, um, the Castle Quays Car Park in Cowley.
Think I can make some of the other photo collecting part of pub crawls/wine walks.
― djh, Monday, 8 July 2024 21:15 (two months ago) link
Slightly niche question but is there a pub/bar in Oxford with a decent jukebox?
― djh, Wednesday, 17 July 2024 21:43 (two months ago) link
15 year old information, but the star on rectory road used to have a good one
― 𝔠𝔞𝔢𝔨 (caek), Thursday, 18 July 2024 16:58 (two months ago) link
god, there’s a pub i’d forgotten about…
― Fizzles, Thursday, 18 July 2024 17:08 (two months ago) link
(the star i mean, i don’t mean some other unspecified pub i’ve forgotten about)
The Wheatsheaf off the High Street is the only pub in Oxford that I know which still has a jukebox. The bar staff do play decent tunes at the Star in Rectory Road tho. Plus it has a nice big beer garden.
Caek & Fizzles: apart from getting rid of the pool tables at the back the Star will be v much as you remember it (I say that as a regular of 20 years!)
― Grandpont Genie, Thursday, 18 July 2024 17:22 (two months ago) link
that’s good to hear! i might pop in at some point…
― Fizzles, Thursday, 18 July 2024 17:25 (two months ago) link
I used to live on Princes St in a house whose back garden shared a wall with the back garden of the Star. Great days. Sorry to hear the jukebox has gone!
― 𝔠𝔞𝔢𝔨 (caek), Thursday, 18 July 2024 19:58 (two months ago) link
Oh, the Star is my "work drinks/people leaving work" pub. Great space. Will be there tomorrow!
― djh, Thursday, 8 August 2024 22:43 (one month ago) link
I shall almost certainly be there tomorrow!
― Grandpont Genie, Thursday, 8 August 2024 22:47 (one month ago) link
I do like the "take a pizza in from around the corner and pay a quid" thing.
― djh, Tuesday, 13 August 2024 22:05 (one month ago) link