Oxford Historical Walking Tour Experience

Experience Oxford's rich history on a 90-minute walking tour led by an Institute of Tourist Guiding professional and Guild of Guides member. Explore the city's origins from Anglo-Saxon times, the evolution of the university, its stunning architecture, libraries, and the vibrant student life of today. Oxford History tours offer real history for genuine history lovers.
Stroll through Oxford's iconic sites, including:

Radcliffe Camera
Divinity School
Bridge of Sighs
Bodleian Library
Christopher Wren’s Sheldonian Theatre
Medieval Colleges around every corner

Discover stories of patrons, artists, politicians, saints, scholars, rebels, and martyrs who shaped over 1,000 years of Oxford's history. This tour also includes practical tips to enhance your stay in Oxford.

The route passes famous film, television locations and literary legend.

Meeting Point

Trinity College Gardens (University of Oxford)

Trinity College, Broad St, Oxford OX1 3BH, UK

Please meet at Trinity Gate, Broad Street, Oxford, OX1 3BH

What's included:

• Advice to help explore and eat after the tour
• Entrance fee to a medieval college
• Guided tour led by an experienced, licensed guide
• Complimentary map and guidebook

What to expect:

Duration: 1 hour, 30 minutes

Martyrs' Memorial

13 Magdalen St, Oxford OX1 3AE, UK

Important Victorian monument to the Protestant martyrs of the 16th century.

3 minutes

St Michael at the North Gate

Cornmarket St, Oxford OX1 3EY, UK

This Anglo Saxon Tower was part of the Medieval city gate and is probably the surviving oldest building in Oxford today. Many stories over the centuries

4 minutes

Exeter College

Turl Street, Oxford, OX1 3DP

Exeter's chapel was inspired by the Oxford Movement and modelled on Paris' St Chapelle. Graduates include Philip Pullman, JR Tolkien and Alan Bennett.

4 minutes

Lincoln College

Turl Street, , Oxford, OX1 3DR

Lincoln College's original face onto Turn Street tells a story about the University's origins and its relationship with the city. Lincoln College recently got it first Priminister Rushi Sunak, and was also home to the ~Methodist Wesley Brothers

3 minutes

University Church of St. Mary the Virgin

The High Street, University of Oxford, Oxford, OX1 4BJ

The University Church was the University's first building. It is listed in the Doomsday Book. Ot is possible to climb its magnificent spire. Today we will admire its famous stained glass and learn how it inspired CS Lewis.

7 minutes

Oriel College

Oriel Square, Oxford, OX1 4EW

Oriel college is one of the Universities oldest Colleges and today famous for rowing. Its front Quad with Oriel windows is stunning. It is neighbours with Corpus Christi who famously host the annual tortoise race.

5 minutes

Christ Church

St. Aldates, University Of Oxford, Oxford, OX1 1DP

We pass east of Christchurch. Visitors might like to go back and enjoy the fabulous Christchurch Picture gallery tucked behind the imposing Eastern entry to the college.

Pass by without stopping

Corpus Christi College

Merton Street, , Oxford, OX1 4JF

Corpus Christi's early 16th century architecture contains many moving and beautiful figures of animals, including a pious pelican. Corpus Christi is set upon a cobbled street which is listed as a national treasure.

3 minutes

Merton College

Merton Street, Oxford, OX1 4JD

Merton is Oxford's third College. The original and beautiful 15th century frieze over the gatehouse is one of my favourite creations in the whole of Oxford and tells the tale of the founding of colleges in the universities earlier days. The flying buttresses of the chapel are richly decorated. Thomas Bodley, founder of the Bodleian Library, was a graduate from Merton college. Merton College's library is the oldest continuously surviving library in Oxford.

5 minutes

Examination Schools

Examination Schools High Street, Oxford, OX1 4BG

Oxford University had its first written exam in the early 19th century. This Victorian extravaganza of Jacobean and Tudor architectural styles was the height of modernity in the 1870's. Inspired by an egalitarian spirit of making g education more widely .available to the masses.

5 minutes

Queen's College

High Street, Oxford, OX1 4AW

Queen's college is Alma Mater to rowan Atkinson from the celebrity world. It was founded for poor scholars from the North of England , one of whose became so wealthy that a donation from him funded an 18th century rebuilding of the college with designs contributed by Christopher Wren and Nicholas Hawksmoor.
The High Street was the road to `London and has transformed over the years. Frank Cooper's Marmalade was first made here. It went on to become a world wide Fad. It is also the site of England's first coffee house founded when Jewish people were welcomes back into the UK having been banned in the thirteenth century during Oliver Cromwell's Republic.

5 minutes

New College

Holywell Street, , Oxford, OX1 3BN

New college's wonderful gates house tells the tale of its foundation after the plagues of the fourteenth century. Its charming setting has been used in many film sets.

3 minutes

Bridge of Sighs

New College Ln., Oxford, OX1 3BL

Oxford's iconic bridge belonging to Hertford College. Although it looks like an old Venetian Bridge, it was built in the twentieth century! It is also next to the house of Edmund Halley who had the comet named after him.

3 minutes

Sheldonian Theatre

Broad Street, , Oxford, OX1 3AZ

We will admire this 17th century home to the ceremonies of Oxford University. It is believed to be the first building by Christopher Wren. The architect of St Paul's Cathedral in London was also Astronomer of Photography at Oxford University.

6 minutes

Oxford Central Library

Central Library 2 Westgate, Oxford, OX1 1DJ

Built on top of the exquisite medieval perpendicular Divinity School the Duke Humphrey Library was built in fifteenth century to house a gift of over 200 books from the `King's brother. Both of these rooms were selected by JK Rowling to be used for Harry Potter scenes.

4 minutes

Bodleian Library

Broad Street, University Of Oxford, Oxford, OX1 3BG

Today the Bodlein Library has over 13 million books. We will admire the 17th century buildings and learn about the origins go the library and how it still works today.

5 minutes

Radcliffe Camera

Radcliffe Square, , Oxford, OX1 3BG

Oxford's first science Library. Learn about one of Oxford's most eccentric and generous benefactors, the Royal Physician sir John Radcliffe

5 minutes

Balliol College

Broad Street, , Oxford, OX1 3BJ

We will step inside Oxford's second oldest college and see its internal quadrangle, the Capel with its glorious stained glass, as well as its dining hall with portraits that tell its interesting foundation story. Here we'll learn more about when women undergraduates started to have access to the University and its colleges.

15 minutes • Admission Ticket Included