Way back in the eighties there was a television series called Inspector Morse. Our hero, played by John Thaw, solved murder mysteries in Oxford while driving around in his Jaguar, listening to Wagner and drinking real ale. Many scenes were filmed at the Turf Tavern which has the be the most enchanting pub in Oxford, and well worth going out of your way to find.
And finding it is half the fun. It is tucked behind Hertford College and the Holywell Road, and can be reached only by tiny alleys. If you are coming from the Radcliffe Camera then step under the Bridge of Sighs to New College Lane. The alley leading to the Turf Tavern is only a meter wide and on the north side of the street. If you follow it behind the college accommodation and gardens and take a swift left, you'll find the beer garden of the Turf Tavern. From the north is the better way, and once you have found your way to Holywell Street, it is just a sidestep to the south. The alley to look out for is Bath Place, which is only 2-feet wide and lined with cobbles. At the end is the pink Georgian hotel called, suitably, the Bath Hotel. But it is a passageway to the left you must look for. And this will bring you out into the beer garden of the Turf Tavern.
The Tavern goes back to the 13th century where it served not just as a hostelry, but an inn as well. It backs onto the ruins of the medieval city walls and its beer garden is on many levels with wooden benches. When you venture inside, you realize people must have been much smaller back in the 1200s as the ceiling is very low and covered in timber beams. The bar is in a horseshoe shape, allowing staff to serve patrons on either side of the tavern. The beers are good with Oxfordshire specialities such as Fuller and Bombadier on tap. There are also other ales and stouts such as Greene King, Old Peculiar, and the ever-popular Speckled Hen. For cider drinkers there is Dry Blackthorne and the mulled wine is good for cold winter afternoons.
The patrons are a mixture of students, locals, and tourists. It is a good place to bring mum and dad when they visit and the food is supposedly good. The usual British favorites of "chips with everything..." is available but I hear their Sunday roast dinner is a bargain at £5.50. It is a good pub for sitting back on one of its rickety wooden chairs and just talking. Students are adept at this and there is always a bunch of them in there flicking beermats at each other and after a few pints discussing the weighty issues of the day such as
"Who was the best James Bond?", "Which is the best college?", and most importantly "Who is buying the next round of drinks...?"