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Image posted by Just a quick pint, then I'm off
Submitted on Sunday, 29th September 2019
With picture contributions to 9888 other pubs
View all this pub's pictures (5 more images)
Detail Pages
Big Society, St Clements, Oxford
Oxford
OX4 1HR
Served areas
BigSocietyOxford
Yo @Deliveroo where has the. Stock levels option gone on my tablet. We can’t make items unavailable anymore!!
5:13 PM Sep 10th 2021 from Twitter for iPhone
Reviews of Big Society (Average Rating: 4½ of 10) see review guidelines
Steve C left this review about Big Society
Big Society is very much a student pub, that was busy with all the seating taken during a recent Tuesday evening visit. Premium keg was available from the centrally located bar counter, I went for the Camden Helles which stank of eggs and was undrinkable. The barman changed it for a Kronenburg without batting an eyelid, but continued to sell the Helles to the unsuspecting students. The turds in this area must run freely through the sewers in the mornings. To the right of the bar is open plan seating and to the left is table tennis and table football. I think the most disturbing thing I witnessed was the single file queue from the bar, lord help us.
On 20th October 2023
- rating: 2
[User has posted 5251 recommendations about 5219 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Tris C left this review about Big Society
Big Society: "integrating the free market with a theory of social solidarity based on hierarchy and voluntarism". Quite how this relates to the former Elm Tree is anyone's guess, but this was my first into a pub close to where I lived for several years in a none too desirable part of Oxford.
It is indeed opened out with a three-room format with the bar in the middle section, a table tennis rig taking up the whole of the left room with the right room occupied by tubular steel and plywood furniture with a dartboard. The middle room is quite large but has no furniture other than a few tall stools to deep drinking ledges in front of the windows which have modern secondary glazing, presumably to reduce noise pollution with the windows shaded by makeshift curtains made from old hessian sacks. Paintwork is all white, there's much pale wood with shiny white tiling behind the bar and shaded metal hanging lamps along with hipster filament bulbs in cages, all of which gives the impression of drinking in a TB sanatorium from the 1920s. Bogs are located in an outhouse which is just beyond the largely covered beer patio which is also now home to the table football. There's food here in the form of a 'pulled mushroom burger', whatever that may be, to be consumed with the contents of all the sauce bottles which litter the tables. Customers were certainly young, though given the holidays, I'm not sure if they were students or not.
Ales: five keg and cider taps from chrome founts and an obscured pump delivering Big Society Pale Ale (Shotover) which I missed, plumping for the keg Siren Sound Wave at £2.00 a half which is a bargain considering that a pint cost £4.50. It was quite nice by keg standards.
This isn't a bad place by local comparisons, but with great pubs in Jericho, I can't see why anyone would want to drink on this street.
On 29th August 2019
- rating: 4
[User has posted 1985 recommendations about 1951 pubs]
Please Note: This review is over a year old.
Quinno _ left this review about Big Society
Recent (2012) change from a pub called the Elm Tree, this is now a good students boozer. Enter to an opened-out main room, dimly lit on my evening visit with better than average ‘alternative’ piped music. Another area is to the right, leading out to a roofed-over patio area that clearly bothers the smoking ban but I liked it. A games room to the left of the main bar with table tennis and table football, well frequented on my visit. Food (American diner-style, burgers etc) and WiFi offered. Two ales at the bar - a house pale ale from the local Shotover and Wild Weather Coaleition. On requesting a half the efficient barman produced a glass from a large fridge…assumptions that it was to disguise a warm, lacklustre beer were unfounded as the resultant ale was in rather good shape. If you're out this way and can cope with students, this is a winner. I know I'd use it if I were one and I was really rather impressed.
On 6th May 2014
- rating: 8
[User has posted 5099 recommendations about 5082 pubs]
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- Official site of Big Society - www.bigsocietyoxford.com
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- CAMRA WhatPub :: Big Society - whatpub.com
Pub Details
Pub details supplied by members of this site to the best of their knowledge. Please check with pub directly before making a special trip.
- Accommodation : No last updated 27 August 2019 by Tris C
- Bar Billiards : No last updated 07 May 2014 by Quinno _
- Beer Festivals : No last updated 27 August 2019 by Tris C
- Beer Garden : Yes last updated 27 August 2019 by Tris C
- CAMRA Discount : No last updated 07 May 2014 by Quinno _
- Car Park : No last updated 27 August 2019 by Tris C
- Darts : Yes last updated 27 August 2019 by Tris C
- Function Room : No last updated 27 August 2019 by Tris C
- Hot Food : Yes last updated 07 May 2014 by Quinno _
- Jukebox : No last updated 27 August 2019 by Tris C
- Karaoke : No last updated 27 August 2019 by Tris C
- Live Music : No last updated 27 August 2019 by Tris C
- Live TV Sports : No last updated 27 August 2019 by Tris C
- Micropub : No last updated 27 August 2019 by Tris C
- Pinball : No last updated 07 May 2014 by Quinno _
- Pool Table : No last updated 27 August 2019 by Tris C
- Quiz Night : Yes - Tuesdays, 7.30pm. - last updated 27 August 2019 by Tris C
- Real Ale : Yes last updated 07 May 2014 by Quinno _
- Real Cider : No last updated 07 May 2014 by Quinno _
- WiFi : Yes last updated 06 May 2014 by David McNally
