Museum of Oxford Walks: Shakespeare and Oxford

Part of the Museum of Oxford Walks 2025 series.

New for 2025, celebrating the Museum of Oxford’s 50th birthday!

Shakespeare came to Oxford when travelling between work (London) and his family (Stratford-upon-Avon) – what a commute! What was Oxford like during his lifetime? What did he get up to while he was in town?

This Shakespeare-themed walking tour is an opportunity to pause and look carefully at Oxford city centre, noticing Elizabethan and Jacobean details you might pass by every day. The tour includes a unique Tudor bedroom above Cornmarket Street, the famous Painted Room which will be opened specially by Oxford Preservation Trust, just for us!

Want to know more about Elizabethan eating and drinking, entertainment and travel? Or the rollercoaster of religious change in Tudor and Stuart England? Led by historian Dr Elizabeth Sandis, this is a Shakespeare-themed journey through Oxford’s famous streets.

At the end there will be an optional 20-minute extension to the tour (included in the price), exploring Tudor and Stuart treasures in the Museum of Oxford’s galleries.

Tickets cost £15 and are available to purchase online (booking fee applies) or at the Museum shop.

Accessibility and further information

Meeting point: Museum of Oxford shop (located inside the Oxford Town Hall). Please arrive 5 minutes before the start of the walk and check in at the Museum Shop with our friendly front of house team.

The walk lasts for approx. 1.5 hours and is a circular walk around central Oxford. Length: approx. 1.2 miles / 1.9 km. Two toilet stops are available along the way.

Please note the Tudor Painted Room is up a steep flight of stairs without a lift; it is sadly not accessible to wheelchairs. The rest of the tour can be adapted to offer a more wheelchair-friendly route, avoiding narrow doorways and cobbles (please let us know if you would prefer this option by emailing museum@oxford.gov.uk).

Please note that this walk is recommended for ages 16+.

Meet your tour guide: Elizabeth Sandis

Dr Elizabeth Sandis works at the Ashmolean Museum and is the author of Early Modern Drama at the Universities: Institutions, Intertexts, Individuals (Oxford University Press, 2022). She researches the way in which the Classical culture of Greece and Rome impacted on English society and values during the early modern period. With a passion for local history and theatre, she enjoys translating and staging examples of the kind of plays students were producing in Oxford during the time of Shakespeare.