Greetings, students! Welcome to Oxford! To celebrate your arrival we have gathered up a few goodies for you. Fancy a free bike? free food? free cinema tickets? Then enter the competition...
Don't worry if you're not a university fresher, we'll have a competition open to everyone up soon too!
Competition now closed. Winners to be announced shortly.
3 month VIP Membership to The Phoenix Picturehouse
A jazz dinner for 2 at The Big Bang Restaurant: bangers, mash and a bottle of wine accompanied by live music
2 pairs of tickets to East Oxford's multi-venue Gathering Festival
Annual Membership to the Ultimate Picture Palace
1 of 5 pairs of Friday or Saturday night Glee Club comedy nights
£25 voucher to stuff your face at Mission Burrito
A Lush Gift Box
Lights, lock and a helmet from Walton Street Cycles
A reconditioned bike made to spec by Bainton Bikes
A sharing platter and cocktails for 2 at the Oxford Retreat
Free entry to Thirsty Meeples and a complimentary drink for 4 players plus a free copy of Mogel Motte & Carcassone
4 delicious pizzas from the White Rabbit
A pair of season passes to Oxford City Stars' fixtures
A £50 Blackwell's Gift Card
To enter we just need your name, email and a telephone number to contact you if you win!
Find out more about being a fresher in Oxford with our handy Freshers' Guide!
The Big Bang is Oxford’s specialist bangers and mash restaurant. Previously located in Jericho, The Bang now occupies a huge space in the Oxford Castle Quarter which is pretty much always filled with crazy teapots, jazz music, waiters with swanky Ipads to take your orders on and proper good British food.
Gathering Festival is only in its second year but it made quite an entry onto the Oxford music scene last year, being short-listed for the Best New Festival and Best Metropolitan Festival at the UK Festival Awards. The beauty of Gathering Festival is that not only does it have a pretty special line-up, it also will introduce you to some of the awesome music venues in Oxford: O2 Academy, St John The Evangelist Church, The Bullingdon, East Oxford Community Centre, Cowley Road Methodist Church, Truck Store and The Port Mahon.
The White Rabbit is a fairly new (for Oxford!) independent city-centre pub. Wedged between The Playhouse, New Theatre and Old Fire Station it’s a perfect place for a thesp to have a pre or post-theatre drink. They also serve delicious home-made pizzas, and amazing dough-balls and host regular events.
Thirsty Meeples is, it is assumed, the UK’s first board-game café! It stocks over 1500 board games from all over the world, as well as offering tasty drinks and snacks. There are Game Gurus on hand to each you new games or just lend a helping hand as you play and if you enjoyed your game you can even buy it and take it home with you.
The Oxford Retreat is an established pub-restaurant that serves excellent cocktails and has a pretty decent wine list too. It’s stylish, cosy and a very relaxing place for a meal or drinks.
Lush aren’t a local Oxford company, but they’re still a company we think are pretty fab. You always get great service at Lush and they use vegetarian ingredients and have strong ethics behind their marketing and products.
The Ultimate Picture Palace, which has just undergone a huge renovation in preparation for you bright young things to come wear it out again, has been an Oxford landmark for over 100 years. With mainstream, international, classics and late night screenings it’s a pretty perfect cinema.
The Phoenix Picturehouse is another ancient cinema which is part of the art house Picturehouse cinema chain (It was actually the first Picturehouse opened!). It’s another historic cinema with a mixed programme, including regular eye-opening documentaries which we’re big fans of.
Oxford is quite into is specialist restaurants, one place will only serve bangers and mash, and this place, Mission Burrito, specialise in burritos. With 2 restaurant/take-aways in central Oxford, reasonable prices and sizable portions you are definitely going to make friends with Mission Burrito during your time in Oxford. Get a loyalty card.
Walton Street Cycles are a traditional independent, family-run bike shop. They stock all kinds of bikes and all the accessories you could need. They’re one of the oldest, most established independent bike shops in Oxford so you can be pretty sure they know what they’re talking about.
Bainton Bikes are the best place to hire a 2-wheeled friend from, they also offer guided cycle tours and repairs. They’re basically really good eggs and go-to bike connoisseurs.
The Glee Club is Oxford’s comedy centre. As well as the comedians you also get food, drink and table service so there’s quality all around. The acts are varied in talent and fame, but you can be sure to have a great night out in the hands of the Glee.
Oxford City Stars are Oxford's own Ice Hockey team are playing the in National Ice Hockey League South 2. You can not only appreciate the skilled, fast-paced game from your seat but give it a go yourself with the Oxford Shooting Stars beginners club.
Blackwell's Bookshop is arguably Oxford's most famous and best bookshop. Along with your novels and text-books they also have a music section and second hand books. Blackwell's host loads of great events too, from theatre to book talks there is always something happening.
