Headington & Marston Pubs

Headington

The Britannia
1 Lime Walk, Headington, OX3 7AH - web
Ember Inns
🍴 (Food served all day)
🔆 Outdoor seating
Situated on the corner of London Road and Lime Walk, handy for the Headington shops and a short walk from Brookes University.
At the heart of the Britannia is an old coaching inn, now with several extensions to the original building. There are 4 or 5 different areas to the pub, depending on how you're counting, including seats by a modern real fire. 
It's a popular dining spot with a menu of traditional pub food.  The beer range tends to be a little unexciting - there are 8 hand-pumps but they usually stick to 2 or 3 cask ales from large national brewers.

There's some extensive history of the pub and a couple of great pictures on this website.  London Road has changed a bit over the years!

The Butchers Arms
5 Wilberforce Street, Headington, OX3 7AN - web
Fullers
🔆 Garden  ❓ Pub Quiz
A cracking backstreet local serving a well-kept pint of ale and boasting a sun-trap garden to the side.  Not the most straight-forward place to find, but I reckon it's worth navigating the side streets to seek out the Butchers.
It's a one-room pub - albeit, a fairly big room.  Beers come from the Fullers range, but you've a good chance of finding the breweries seasonal specials on sale here.

The Royal Standard
78 London Road, Headington, OX3 9AJ
Greene King
🔆 Outdoor seating  🍴 Food served all day
⚽ Sports on TV

The first time I visited here in 2014 it was run-down, with a dubious clientele, and a barely passable cask IPA.  We sat on a rickety bench out back watching a builder wobbling on the edge of the third storey roof across the road, shunning all health and safety and sending the odd chunk of masonry falling onto the pavement below.  How we weren't witness to an accident, I'll never know.
Returning in 2023, the Royal Standard has had a make-over and is a pub transformed.  The front room is bright and airy with wooden floor and some dubious wallpaper; the back room has a pool table, dart board and cushioned bench seating along two walls.

Tile Shop Ale House
10 Windmill Road, Headington, OX3 7BX - web
Independent
🕒 Limited opening times - closed Sun, Mon, not open late evenings
More details to follow

Headington

The Black Boy 
91 Old High Street, Headington Village, OX3 9HT (web)
Everards

🍴 (Food served)   
🔆 Garden

We originally called in here in 2014 when 'ticking off' all the cities pubs.  At the time I noted that it had gone full gastropub and offered little to the visitor in search of a pint.
But heading back there in 2020 I'm pleased to report that it's a bit more pub like and we were afforded a warm welcome.
 
The Black Boy has two main rooms, one with the bar filling the length of the back wall.
There is also a small room with a few tables that you pass on the way in, with a door from here leading to a back garden.
As with the White Hart just down the road, beers come from Everards, with two hand pulls serving 'Tiger' and a seasonal ale.

The Masons Arms

2 Quarry School Place, OX3 8LH - web

Free House

🕒 Limited opening times - evenings only Mon-Fri

🔆 Garden ⚽ Sports on TV

This is a great traditional pub set in the maze of alleys and lanes of Headington Quarry.  It has a loyal local following.  There is an L-shaped front bar with comfy seats in the bays of the windows, a dart board and a couple of small TV screens.  A slightly separate back room has a larger TV for sports and a route out to a pleasant decking area over-looking the garden.

There are 5 ales served from well respected breweries such as Dark Star and Timothy Taylor.  The Old Bog Brewery was set up here at the pub in 2005, located in an old out-house.  Sadly brewing is very rare these days, so you're unlikely to come across their own beers.

🍺 Beer Festival - Each September the small hall behind the pub and it's back garden become the venue for the excellent Headington Beer Festival.  This is a popular event with a great range of beers in a wonderful setting.

🏆 Oxford CAMRA branch 2019 City Pub of the Year winner.

The White Hart
12 St Andrews Road, Headington Village, OX3 9DL - web
Everards
🍴 Food served 🔆 Garden

Located in the original historic village part of Headington, this is a lovely Grade II listed 17th century pub.  There are two rooms within, a small front bar and a larger area to the side, both with a comfortable, traditional feel to them.  The range of ales is good, with Everards plus changing guests - between 4 and 7 available.  To the rear is a superb walled garden - quite possibly the best beer garden in the city.

The pub was voted the 2018 City Pub of the Year by the Oxford CAMRA branch.

🍺 Beer Festival - each May the White Hart set up an outdoor beer festival bar in the picturesque garden with a good range of 40+ beers and ciders.  

The 2024 White Hart Beer Festival in full swing

Marston

The Red Lion

40-42 Oxford Road, Old Marston, OX3 0PH - web
Greene King
🍴 Food served     🔆 Garden

Situated in Marston Village, the Red Lion is a traditional, picturesque stone brick pub.  There are two rooms, served by the one central bar - the room to the left being the bar, the one to the right geared more towards eating.  With numerous pubs lost in the area you don't get a lot of choice around this way, which may explain why the bar was very busy on a Saturday afternoon visit.  We headed out to the pleasant garden - a nice spot with occasional barbecues and outside bar.
Greene King again.  Ho hum....more Abbot Ale.
I've not eaten in the Red Lion, but reports are that they serve up some good pub fare.

The Up In Arms

241 Marston Road, New Marston, OX4 0EN  - web
Dodo Pub Co
🍴 Food Served    🔆 Garden

This was formerly the Somerset, which closed in 2009.  In an area already bereft of pubs, this too looked doomed.
A determined community group was set up to try to save the pub and good news came at the end of 2018 when the local Dodo Pub Co began refurbishing it. They also operate the Rickety Press in Jericho and Rusty Bicycle off Iffley Road.
Opened in April 2019, it's an L-shaped room with a great covered patio and garden to the back.
Food comes in the shape of burgers, wings and pizzas.  They've also got proper coffee.
And beers from Arkells, plus some guest ales on hand-pump and a craft keg wall.

The Victoria Arms

Mill Lane, OX4 0QG
Butcombe
🔆 Extensive Garden

At the Victoria Arms it's the spectacular large garden which is the real stand-out feature.  The lawn, with picnic tables dotted about it, leads down to the River Cherwell. 

A pub, originally called the Ferry Inn, existed at this old river crossing - a remote location where supplies were delivered by foot or boat.  Closed and derelict, it was purchased in 1959 by the Oxford Preservation Trust (the folks behind the annual September Open Doors event, which allows us to peak into often closed buildings in the city).  They rejuvenated the pub, which has since been leased to Wiltshire brewery Wadworth's.  More recently this has been taken over by Butcombe, making this a rare outlet for their Somerset beers in Oxford.
Apparently it's a popular destination to punt up the river to - I wouldn't know, I wouldn't get more than a few meters before getting stuck in the river bank if I was left in charge of a punt.
Alternatively it's a pleasant 30-minute walk from the centre, accessing the riverside path via University Parks.

The pub grounds have played host to a couple of annual music festivals - the Riverside Festival and Rabbit Hole Music Festival.  

Also in this area:

White Horse 
1 London Road, Headington, OX3 7SP
A Hungry Horse outlet.
Seriously, who designed the new 2019 pub sign?!
 

Lost Pubs since I created this page...

The Chequers Inn
17a Beaumont Street, Headington Quarry, OX3 8JN
Closed
Now converted to residential dwellings.
This was the oldest pub in Headington Quarry, although had been sliced in half by the time I first visited in 2014, the left-side housing an Indian restaurant.  The Chequers boasted an immaculately maintained back garden with Aunt Sally played at the far end of it.

The Six Bells
3 Beaumont Road, Headington Quarry, OX3 8JN
Closed
Former Greene King pub adjacent to the ring road on the edge of Headington Quarry.
Closed circa 2024 and is now home to Aziz Fusion Restaurant.