Ashmolean Museum
About
The Ashmolean is the world's first university museum, founded in 1683, and its collections are extraordinary. Egyptian mummies, Anglo-Saxon treasures (including the Alfred Jewel), Renaissance paintings, Chinese ceramics, the Messiah Stradivarius violin, and Pre-Raphaelite art — the range and quality rival the V&A or the British Museum on a more intimate, navigable scale. The building was beautifully redesigned by Rick Mather in 2009, creating light-filled galleries that connect the old and new collections seamlessly. The rooftop restaurant has lovely views over central Oxford. The temporary exhibitions are consistently excellent and worth checking before you visit. It's free, right on Beaumont Street in the centre of town, and you could spend an entire day here. If you're short on time, the Egyptian galleries, the Cast Gallery (full-size plaster casts of classical sculptures), and the Renaissance rooms are the highlights. One of the great museums of England and somehow still under-visited compared to its London counterparts.
https://www.ashmolean.org/ 01865 278000
Tickets & Pricing
Free entry. Some temporary exhibitions ticketed.
Opening Times
Tue-Sun 10:00-17:00. Closed Mondays except bank holidays.
Popular Nearby
The Eagle and Child
49 St Giles', Oxford OX1 3LU
Where Tolkien read Lord of the Rings aloud to C.S. Lewis over Tuesday morning pints — literary history in a proper Oxford pub....
Food & Drink, Historical
Free
Radcliffe Camera and All Souls College
Radcliffe Square, Oxford OX1 4AJ
Oxford's most iconic building in its most perfect square — the circular domed Radcliffe Camera surrounded by medieval and baroque grandeur....
Landmarks & Attractions, Historical
Free
Bodleian Library
Broad Street, Oxford OX1 3BG
One of the world's oldest libraries — fan-vaulted ceilings, chained medieval books, and the Hogwarts infirmary in one extraordinary complex....
Historical, Landmarks & Attractions
From £10.00
Pitt Rivers Museum
South Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3PP
Half a million extraordinary objects in a Victorian cabinet of curiosities — shrunken heads, totem poles, and scholarly obsession at its finest....
Museums, Quirky & Unusual
Free
Covered Market
Market Street, Oxford OX1 3DZ
Oxford's living, breathing food market since 1774 — proper butchers, the original Ben's Cookies, and where locals actually shop....
Markets, Food & Drink
Free
What people are saying about this
Invite your friends by email, any users that already have an account will be sent a friend request.