[Closed] Tell me about living in Oxford

Only stuff worth riding is at Shotover, surprisingly fun on my rigid old uni bike. Other than that it's a very "nice" city all things considered, alot of green areas. Much much nicer than London IMO.

ok place to live, very expensive. great pubs.

Loads of riding within 30 mins drive; Chilterns, Ridgeway, Cotswolds.

Expensive to live, unless you've come from somewhere more expensive, then it'll be cheaper 🙂

I work north Oxford, nice area and the expensive side of town. Headington/Cowley are the cheaper end and closer to Shotover, which as mentioned is pretty good fun when you know the area. Good pubs and good bike shops

Its a bit wet at the moment.

Lived there from 98 - 07. Very expensive to buy and rent, Loads of students in term time and tourists everywhere in holidays, Floods when it rains, don't try and drive / take a bus anywhere as you'll get stuck in a traffic jam, then swear at the parking charges in town.
Only good things were Saturday night in the Zodiac (now the O2 academy), Beeline bikes and the massive outdoor swimming pool at Hinksey.

OMG it's mega expensive. Ex lived in St Mary's road just of. The Cowley road in a shared house that was like a million a year for a room smaller than my bathroom!

But, the place just breathes history it's amazing! And it's got great shops an bars and cafes and the river, and libraries and free museums. In the autumn the parks are achingly gorgeous, it was soooo romantic 😳 buses are cheap and the walking and riding are great, bike shop in town was full of hip student ****ers but you can't have everything.

O2 has great bands at cheap prices, saw the Baddies, Joy Formidable, and Passion Pit there for £9!!
( god just realised that those bands show how long ago that was!!)

I'd happily live there if I could afford it

Apparently there's a chippy in Oxford where you can get deep-fried rum truffles

Carfax fish and chips, just up from the best (and now sadly only) rock pub in Oxford, The Wheatsheaf.

I used to work down there quite a lot. As people have mentioned, its eye-wateringly expensive. And if you need to drive anywhere, basically its a huge car park. You'd be quicker walking

But its an amazing place. A truly beautiful historic city. Great pubs and restaurants. As far as riding goes, nothing that interesting really. We'd end up doing a bit of walking instead

Good riding to be found. Local = Shotover, 20 miles away Chilterns - which will keep you happy for years.

Ha ha the Wheatsheaf OMG!! The bar with the stickiest floors in the world. Saw a band there that did all the shit stuff from Scott pilgrim. God they were shit

England has the best pubs in the world, Oxfords range of pubs is probably the best in England.

Lived there 2002-08. Riding Shotover is fun, Swinley isn't too far away.
Pubs are good, lots of pretty girls due to public school selective breeding, inspiring architecture.
Downsides as above: VERY pricey - not far off London prices, car traffic terrible, I'd also add it has its fair amount of crime - a couple of friends were viciously mugged and others had their houses broken into.
North Oxford is sedate overall, it is far less crowded than the rest of the city.

It's fair to say the mountain biking is pretty pants. However, the road riding if it's your thing is brilliant IMO, with easy access to the Cotswolds, White Horse, Brill, Chilterns etc. There is a good roadie scene as well, with club runs, chaingangs and plenty of races. Winter time there are a fair few 'cross races within driving distance.

Yeah, forgot the bike crime issue, had a Kona Sex 2, Orange Partiot, and decent road bike nicked within my time there.
The girls were damn pretty though, silver linings and all.

I live about 20 mins west of Oxford and have a bit of a love/hate relationship with the city, on one hand it's great (good pubs, pretty architecture, a reasonable amount of work, a good night out, a fair amount of comedy at the comedy club or theater, in the middle of the country so getting anywhere else isn't too hard and surrounded by lovely countryside), but on the other hand its a bloody nightmare (full of students,tourists and people with their heads stuck up their own bottoms, very expensive, a nightmare to drive to, through and around and not much mountainbiking other than XC).

[i] I'd also add it has its fair amount of crime - a couple of friends were viciously mugged and others had their houses broken into.[/i]

Hmmm me an ex got attacked for holding hands one morning on the Cowley Rd, there are bits of Oxford that are crap, but that's the same everywhere

I'm not going to comment on how pretty the students were 😆

Oh sounds rather good, thank you all. I'm currently living in Copenhagen so relatively speaking it doesn't seem quite as eye wateringly expensive. It actually sounds rather similar, need to rank the relative prettiness of the female population to be sure though 😀

Crime isn't that bad if you are sensible. I lived on Cowley road for nearly 4 years without issue.

Why would you drive through Oxford, that's what bikes are for (or punts).

No good riding to speak of, it's all a drive away.
North Oxford has the nicest pubs, the area between Summertown and the city.
A decent size house there is however, a lot of money.
Over the ring road is cheaper, but the traffic is awful so try and factor in a bike commute.

TBH if the job was right I'd move back, its a beautiful place, but its a bit like London in that you need money to avoid the ropey bits.
Also don't think that moving to the surrounding villages or towns would make it any cheaper or easier to get in / out. The A40 and A34 are among the most sole destroying roads I've ever had the misfortune of being stuck on.

Oxford, it's a game of two halves and all that, the third town and gown type place I've lived. You can get a range of answers from people, locals may have a different opinion to students. Compare north oxford, with the more studenty areas near cowley rd to blackbird leys.

I tend to drive a lot to get better biking in wales. You could live south of oxford, it's cheaper but less stereotypically studenty or dreaming spires. Do you want to rent, be near loads of bars, hanker for a kebab on the evening, or do you want a more chilled slightly older lifestyle. commuting is often the decision on location. Do you need to be near a london train line?