The University Parks: Oxford Travel Guide (4.7★)

Where the Science Area gives way to grass

You cross from stone to open lawn in about twenty paces. Walk up Parks Road past the Gothic bulk of the Oxford University Museum of Natural History, and the iron gates of The University Parks open onto 70 acres of mown grass, specimen trees and long gravel paths.

The University owns and manages it, and it has been parkland since the mid-nineteenth century. The address is South Parks Road, OX1 3RF. There are several gates, but most visitors arrive on the Parks Road side, between the museum and Keble College’s striped brick.

Walking the loop to the Cherwell

The whole park leans east toward the River Cherwell. A perimeter path runs along the water, under willows and past benches set back on the bank. In summer, punts drift by slowly, and the poles knock against the gravel riverbed.

The path you want is the riverside one. Along the way you’ll find:

• The Rainbow Bridge, a high-arched footbridge over the Cherwell, and the most photographed spot in the park.
• Mesopotamia, the narrow strip of land between two channels of the river, reached from the southern end. It makes a quiet extension to the walk.
• The former Parson’s Pleasure, on the bank where men once bathed nude. It closed in the early 1990s, but you’ll still hear the name.
• The duck pond toward the north end, ringed by planting.

A relaxed circuit takes about an hour. Add Mesopotamia and you can stretch it to two.

Cricket, croquet and the planted borders

Sport fills the middle of the park. The cricket ground in the centre is home to Oxford University Cricket Club, and the club has hosted county sides here since the late 1800s. On match days you can watch from the grass by the pavilion, with no stands and no gate in the way.

Elsewhere the ground is split into pitches and open lawn, used for informal games and picnics. The planting is the other half of the appeal. The tree collection and the landscaped beds are labelled and looked after, and they change noticeably from spring blossom to autumn colour.

Reading the gate notices before you settle in

The Parks run on posted rules, and the regulars follow them. These are the habits that matter:

• Check the closing time at the gate. The Parks lock at dusk, so the time moves through the year. It’s printed on the noticeboard at each entrance. Don’t count on a gate being open after dark.
• Read the rules on dogs and bikes. They’re posted at the entrances too, and wardens do enforce them. Wheel a bike through rather than ride it unless a sign says otherwise.
• Keep off a pitch during a game. Cricket balls travel, and players expect walkers to go around the boundary.
• Take your litter with you. Bins are near the gates, not dotted across every lawn.

The Parks are well known in Oxford and get busy in fine weather, so no corner stays empty for long. A weekday morning will usually be calmer than a sunny weekend afternoon, when students and families spread out across the grass.

Getting there from the city centre

Walking is easiest. From Broad Street, head north up Parks Road, passing the Weston Library and the Science Area. The main gate is about fifteen minutes from Carfax. From Oxford railway station, the walk takes roughly half an hour, or you can take a bus into the centre and walk from there.

There’s no visitor car park at the gates, and the streets nearby are mostly permit parking. If you’re driving, use one of Oxford’s Park & Ride sites and come in by bus.

Pairing it with the museums and the river

Plan to come back out the way you went in. The Museum of Natural History and the Pitt Rivers Museum behind it are right by the Parks Road gate, so you can do a museum in the morning and walk the Cherwell after. Keble College is across the road.

If you’d rather see the Parks from the water, hire a punt at the Cherwell Boathouse to the north or at Magdalen Bridge to the south, and push along the river beside the park. From the southern end, a walk down past the Marston Road side will bring you back toward the High Street.