Whether you're keen to punt on the Isis, where the university's rowing team trains, or see priceless treasures in the Ashmolean Museum, or rise before dawn for May Morning, let your journey start here in this pocket-sized guide to Oxford.


Dubbed 'the city of dreaming spires', Oxford has nurtured 70 Nobel Prize winners, 27 UK prime ministers and is today a high-tech hub. Home to the Oxford English Dictionary, the city has nurtured so many authors - J. R. R. Tolkien, Oscar Wilde and T.S. Eliot among them.

Discover the fascinating history of its residents - past and present, as well as little-known trivia and hidden architectural gems.

Step away from academia, to learn about the city's green oases: Christ Church Meadow, the 400-year-old Botanic Garden and Port Meadow. Or for something more sporty, read of Iffley Road Sports Centre, where Roger Bannister ran the first four-minute mile, or Corpus Christi College's annual tortoise race.