Cape of Good Hope, Oxford

Cape of Good Hope is hard to miss located on the roundabout just south of Magdalen Bridge and Oxford City Centre. The rounded front of the pub has some open plan seating and a small stage area that are faced by a U-shaped bar counter on the right-hand wall. A beer shelf runs up the left to a pinball machine and more seating at the rear with a beer garden beyond. There were a few students in during my recent Tuesday evening visit, none of them were watching the random rugby match that was on the televisions via TNT. Premium keg and Neck Oil were available alongside four hand pumps that were drawing Adnam’s Ghost Ship and Birmingham Brewing’s Pale Brummie as well as couple of ciders. The service was polite, but I prefer the pubs on the other side of the bridge.

Big dreadnought building housing a student bar (was a Scream pub that has since been made over by M&B) with a surprisingly laid-back atmosphere on my late evening visit. Seemingly a quiz on the go, plenty of people partaking so must be popular. Posh bar snacks (scotch quail eggs, Edamame beans etc) offered at 3 for 11 quid, also burgers etc as mains. Selection of board games available. Four pumps with three ales; decent choice of Brakspear Oxford Gold, Itchin Valley Blackcurrant Mild and Oakham Citra (in very good nick but 2 quid a half, ouch). Also an impressive selection of bottled craft ales, ciders and higher-end keg. Surprisingly alright and worth a look if crawling the area. Close to St Hilda’s, the formerly female-only Oxford College.

Situated in the Plain area on the busy Iffley road roundabout, this Mitchell and Butler outlet saw previous existence as one of their truly awful ‘Scream’ outlets. Fortunately since then it has had the usual paint by numbers M&B retro/gastro makeover, like many of their venues that were formerly run as 'Scream' joints. As such, it is now more of a pub come wine bar with the usual modern clean plain wood walls and flooring approach. The bar supports the usual decent range of foreign lager fizz taps alongside four real ale hand pumps. These were 2 Brakespears, one Adnams and one off when I visited, so nothing earth shatteringly adventurous but decent enough for this type of place. It does benefit from a cordoned off outside drinking area with tables and chairs to the front of the pub on the pavement. This is a nice spot when the sun is out as long as you can block out the constant stream of traffic going around the roundabout