The Victoria, Jericho, Oxford

An interesting interior makes this pub worth close inspection.The entrance is to the side and leads to the main bar,with a mix of furniture around the carpeted interior with much wood panelling.Down some steps is The Lair,a lower snug with it's own bar access and leather bench seating while some stairs from here reach a two tabled eyrie infront of the old front door,out of action these days.Back in the main bar there is a further staircase leading to an upper lounge with a central opening overlooking the action below .Here is the jokey ceiling mural and the suspended bi plane ,some banquette seating and a relaxing place to sup.The muzak was big on classic rock tracks played at a sensible background level .Food is popular here ,mainly pies with 11 on the menu and seeming good vale at £6 with salad and £8 with chips. Tied to Marstons and only two handpumps serving Jennings Cumberland and Ringwood 4X Porter,in good nick but a poor stab at a porter.However worth including on any Jericho crawl ,there was a lively atmosphere and a good cross section of folk in enjoying the surroundings.

Attractive chequerboard brick building. Large double-decker interior, tarted-up but in quite a nice way. Muted atmospheric lighting rather than gloomy (always a fine line). Breezily upmarket in almost all respects, from the well-heeled clientèle to the lounge muzak. Two pumps, dispensing Brakspear Oxford Gold (very good indeed) and Ringwood 49er (is this a Marstons outlet?) plus an intriguing keg selection. Items of note included a large WWII seaplane model (a Hawker, thanks Steve!) suspended from the ceiling, pint-holding Sistine Chapel ceiling parody and an attractive bar back. ‘Handmade pies’ on the menu which sounded tempting. According to my notes the toilets were “like something out of Jeeves and Wooster” though memory has failed to recall exactly why – take my word for it. To the rear is a massive terraced beer garden, nicely executed. All-in-all, quite a positive place and I’d happily pop back again though it may not be to everyone’s taste. Combined on a crawl with the Old Bookbinders and Gardeners Arms (with the Rose & Crown but a few streets away from the Gardeners), you’ve got a bunch to match the OX1 set but without the tourists.

Official site of the Victoria - www.victorianpub.co.uk

Official site of the Victoria - www.victorianpub.co.uk

Found this pub by accident when, having walked up the canal from Central Oxford to the area of Jericho, was meandering the back streets to get to the Open Top tourist bus stop on the main road back into Oxford. The Victoria is situated on the corner of Walton Street and St Bernard’s Road and we decided on a last pint before heading home. And I am very glad we did as this was definitely a Brucey Bonus as this is a very decent pub. Internally it is a split-level multi-room pub. There is a large main bar area with an open atrium to the second-floor ceiling, from which is suspended a large model of a Hawker biplane that could do some serious damage if it ever came loose and fell onto the punters below. And the ceiling above this is painted with a version of the Sistine Chapel ceiling, but with the characters holding pints. The main bar is wood floored and half paneled with all walls covered in period photo’s of Oxfords and around. Then there are other rooms upstairs, one known as the Terrace room and then a smaller bar at the front, known as the Lair, which is a very cosy paneled bar room with seating and a fire place. There is a small garden patio on Walton Street by the front entrance to the pub, itself but don't be fooled that is it as far as outside drinking goes as around the corner is to be found a pedestrian entrance to the main bar and larger back garden area . You have to negotiate several flights of steps both down and up before arriving at the pleasant back garden. Alongside the standard cold lager pumps there are a couple of real ales. I think there is a tie up with Marstons and EPA was on. But there is a guest and this was a particularly fine pint of Jennings Cumberland Ale which had traveled well from the Lake District brewery So all in all I really liked this pub and would certainly frequent it if I lived in the Jericho area of Oxford.