Bodleian Library visitor guide — everything you need to know before visiting

At a glance

Meeting point

The Proscholium, Old Schools Quadrangle

Address

Catte Street, Oxford OX1 3BG

Length

60 minutes, in English

Group size

14 people at most

Ages

11 and over, with an adult

Ticket release

9am UK time, 1st and 15th of the month

Library hours

Mon–Fri 9.00–17.00; Sat–Sun 10.00–17.00

Where the tour starts

The Bodleian is not one building but a cluster in the centre of Oxford: the Old Library around the Old Schools Quadrangle, the domed Radcliffe Camera to the south, and the Weston Library across Broad Street to the north. The 60-minute tour belongs to the Old Library, whose address is Catte Street, Oxford OX1 3BG.

With a pre-booked ticket you can go straight there. Enter through the Great Gate on Catte Street, or come in from Radcliffe Square on the south side. Inside the quadrangle, the glass doors behind the statue lead into the Proscholium, the entrance hall of the Divinity School, where the guide meets the group.

How the release mornings work

The library does not sell 60-minute tours months ahead. All tickets for this tour go online at 9am UK time on the 1st and the 15th of each month, a fortnight of dates at a time. On 15 October, for instance, tours for 1–14 November went on sale; on 1 November, tours for 15–30 November follow.

The library says plainly that its tour tickets often sell out online, and that it cannot reserve tickets for anyone. If your date is already gone, or not yet released, you can hold it with us without paying. We check on the release morning and for places that come back, and only send a payment link once we can book.

Who can join

Everyone on the 60-minute tour must be 11 or over, and children have to come with an adult. The library's reasons are the content, which it judges unsuitable for children aged 10 and under, and the fact that Duke Humfrey's is a working library where noise is kept to a minimum.

There is one fare and every visitor needs a ticket, including Oxford students and holders of a Bodleian reader card. If your party includes a child under 11, this is not the tour for your day; the Weston Library's free exhibitions and the Old Schools Quadrangle are open to all ages.

The four rooms, in the order you see them

The tour opens in the Divinity School, built between 1424 and 1488 and the University's oldest teaching room and first examination school. Over 400 crests and other images are carved into its stone ceiling, and the benches and pulpits are where students once argued their cases.

From there you go into Convocation House, a 17th-century parliament house with a stone fan vault, where the University's governing bodies met for over 300 years and where Charles I's parliament sat during the Civil War. Next is Chancellor's Court, the University's old courtroom with an oak-panelled dock from the 1630s, where students were tried; Oscar Wilde was summoned there in the 1870s over unpaid bills.

The tour ends upstairs in Duke Humfrey's Library, the Bodleian's oldest reading room, with its painted ceiling panels bearing the arms of the University and a reading booth built for Charles I. Readers still work there, so voices drop.

Your ticket on the day

Each visitor shows their own ticket. You can show it on your phone or bring a printout. Your tour time is the time the group sets off from the Proscholium, so be in the quadrangle a few minutes before, with time to find the doors.

If something stops you making the tour, tell us as early as you can. The library asks to be told so the guide does not wait, and we pass the message on. Tour tickets are non-refundable on the library's side; if the library itself cancels a tour, you are refunded in full. Keep the e-ticket email handy on the day; it also carries your booking details if you need to contact us.

Days with no 60-minute tour

These rooms are still used by the University for ceremonies, and the library also hosts private events and filming. On those days the Divinity School closes, sometimes for the whole day and sometimes from mid-afternoon, and the 60-minute tour does not run.

In autumn 2026 the library has listed no 60-minute tours on 20, 30 and 31 October and on 1, 3, 6, 7, 13, 14 and 19 November, with early Divinity School closures on several other days. Our booking calendar greys out those dates; for any other day, the times you see are the ones we can book. The library updates its closure list through the year, and we follow it.

Getting to the Old Library

On foot the Old Library is a 15–20 minute walk from Oxford railway station and about five minutes from Carfax Tower in the city centre. Trains reach Oxford from London and Birmingham in under an hour, and London Marylebone trains also run to Oxford Parkway, four miles north, where buses and taxis continue into town.

The Oxford Tube coach runs regularly to and from London. Driving into the centre is not easy: Oxford runs a traffic filter scheme with fines for cars without a permit, and parking on Parks Road is very limited. The library recommends the Park and Ride. There are nine Blue Badge spaces nearby, four on Broad Street and five on Parks Road.

Photography, bags and quiet

You are welcome to take photos for your own use on the tour. The library does not allow flash, video cameras, tripods or selfie sticks inside its buildings, and asks visitors not to photograph readers or staff. Photography is not allowed in the Radcliffe Camera, which is not on this tour anyway.

Do not leave bags unattended anywhere on the site, and follow the quiet signs in the library buildings. Travel light: the Weston Library galleries turn away bags larger than about 50 by 40 by 25 centimetres, and the library has no storage for large luggage. Leave suitcases at your hotel before you come.

Stairs and accessibility

There is step-free access to the Divinity School, and Convocation House and Chancellor's Court are wheelchair accessible too. Duke Humfrey's Library, where the tour ends, can only be reached by stairs, and there is no lift in the Old Library.

Visitors on a tour can ask for a hearing loop that links to the guide's microphone. Guide dogs and assistance dogs are welcome; other animals are not. Some of the historic rooms are quite dark. Tell us about any access needs before you book and we will raise them with the tours team ahead of your visit, so the guide knows before the group sets off.

Café, shops and the free ground floor

The Weston Library, across Broad Street from the Old Library, has a free ground floor called Blackwell Hall, with exhibitions, the Bodleian Café and the main shop. The café is open Monday to Friday 9.00–16.30 and at weekends 10.00–16.30, with last orders 15 minutes before closing.

A second shop sits in the Old Schools Quadrangle itself. Blackwell Hall is busiest from about 11am to 2pm; it is calmer on weekdays before 11am and after 3pm, which makes it a good place to wait before an afternoon tour. Toilets, including an accessible toilet with baby changing, are on the Weston Library's ground floor, so use them before you cross to the Old Library.

Around the Old Library

The tour leaves you in the middle of Oxford's oldest academic quarter. Behind the Divinity School is the Sheldonian Theatre, designed by Christopher Wren and built in 1664–69, with a cupola that visitors can climb. Radcliffe Square and the Radcliffe Camera are a minute's walk south of the quadrangle.

A few steps east along New College Lane is the covered bridge known as the Bridge of Sighs, completed in 1914 for Hertford College. The Ashmolean Museum, with free admission and open daily from 10am to 5pm, is a short walk west along Broad Street and Beaumont Street. Together they make an easy half day on foot around a single tour.

Frequently asked questions