The Kings Arms, Oxford

A decent and interesting pub to visit, where you can take a wonder around the multi roomed interior. The bar service was also prompt and efficient, even though the pub was quite busy. My first choice was the Youngs Special, which wasn't at its best, the young barman immediately changed it for the Youngs bitter without hesitation.

In the past I have disregarded this place as being an ordinary Youngs pub and walked past, I was wrong in that assumption, It actually has a rather interesting interior, multi-roomed with some fine wood and glazing features throughout. A bonus on the beer front was that as well as a Wells/Youngs selection there was also three from St Austell including a very good Proper Job. Its worth stopping off here for a pint.

A substantial Youngs pub on a street corner,the best of the interior is to the rear of the building,with a wood panelled and semi glazed back bar,a small snug by a side door an a raised room described as The Office.The main body of the pub at the front is two large rooms,both with flatscreens showing The Tour de France with volume on mute.It's firmly on the tourist trail,but not everyone finds their way to the rear. The bar is two sided ,after walking around it appeared the real ale selection was from CW Youngs Bitter & Special,Bombardier with guests ales all from St Austell namely Trelawnay,Tribute and Proper Job (in good nick) Worth including on a crawl for it's fine interior and good to see real ale options beyond the usual CW suspects.

A very decent multi-room Young's pub with outdoor seating, certainly better than the average Young's. On my last visit - after a gap of many years - hot food was available but it certainly wasn't gastro. This is of course a major pull for students and tutors alike, though I don't recall it being a tourist magnet ; expect to see the obligatory picture of the Queen Mother pouring a pint...

Didn’t have a lot of hope for this one when approaching along Broad Street and was expecting the usual Youngs inner city type sterile gastro food orientated pub, but found a much better pub than I was expecting. This was possibly helped by the fact that we did get some table space in one of the very pleasant smaller snug rooms towards the back of the pub. As mentioned by previous reviewers, it’s quite a large pub internally, but divided into several distinct spaces , with two serving bar spaces and additional separate rooms. The front bar is comfortable but not the best space in this pub and the smaller rooms at the back have much more atmosphere and house a display of pictures of old customers who have visited down the years, including of course, Morse and Lewis. Named after King James 1, who was closely involved with the adjacent Wadham College, at various times over the years it’s been a coaching inn and a hotel, and the back bar, known as "The Office" was a male only bar until the fairer sex were allowed in after a redecoration after a fire in 1973. A decent beer choice for a Youngs pub with seven beers available, which were four Youngs with the usual protagonists and three guest ales. The couple we had were well kept and I could not fault my St Austell’s Tribute, except for the fact that it was bloody expensive and this must be one of the most expensive pubs in OX1. A decent food menu is available, but we didn’t eat here so I cannot pass comment on that. It has been a Young's pub since 1991, when it was their first acquisition in Oxford.