Five-star One MICHELIN Key Banbury Road, central Oxford, Oxford
Old Parsonage Hotel
A stone house begun in 1639 at the top of St Giles, with 35 rooms, a walled garden and a grill room hung with portraits of writers and artists.
Opens the hotel's own website. We have no arrangement with the hotel.
- MICHELIN
- One Key, the first in Oxford
- Rooms
- 35 rooms and suites
- House completed
- 1660
- From the airport
- About 20 minutes from London Oxford Airport
The hotel
Three and a half centuries on St Giles.
A hospice run by nuns stood here in the Middle Ages, and its priest gave the house its name. Edward Selwood, a college cook with a chop house on Broad Street, began rebuilding in 1639 and finished the main house in 1660, after it had come through the Civil War siege of Oxford. University College has owned the ground for more than six hundred years.
Later tenants included two mayors of Oxford, a wig-maker and a sculptor. The Brett family later took the whole house, and Robert Brett let rooms to undergraduates, and one of them is said to have been Oscar Wilde, sent down for a time from Magdalen. The house became a hotel in 1971, and Jeremy Mogford, who also owns the Old Bank Hotel, bought it in 1989.
- The library A skylit room opening onto a courtyard terrace, hung with Paddy Summerfield's black and white photographs of Oxford in the 1960s.
- The walled garden A Moroccan-inspired garden behind the house, a few minutes from the centre of the city, with tables for lunch and drinks outside.
- Oxford on foot The Ashmolean, the Pitt Rivers Museum, University Parks and Jericho are a short walk away. The hotel arranges walking tours, bicycles and punting.
Rooms & suites
Marble bathrooms and Oxford sketches.
Each of the 35 rooms is designed on its own, with handmade beds, natural fabrics, original sketches of Oxford and bathrooms in Carrara marble.
- Suites The Churchill Suites Two suites on the second floor, Winston and Randolph, furnished with Churchill memorabilia.
- More space Junior Suites Separate areas for sitting, dining and writing. Superior Deluxe rooms can interconnect for families.
- Next door 36 St Giles A pair of self-contained rooms overlooking St Giles, each with a kitchenette and a desk, looked after by the hotel team.
Dining
Grill room and garden.
Restaurants as listed by the hotel. Shown for information.
- Parsonage Grill British Breakfast, lunch, dinner and afternoon tea, every day of the year
- Gees Mediterranean A sister restaurant in a Victorian glasshouse on Banbury Road
- Quod at the Old Bank European A sister restaurant about twelve minutes' walk away on the High Street
Recognition
Awards and listings.
- One MICHELIN Key 2025, the first for a hotel in Oxford, and kept the following year
Good to know
Before you go.
- Arrival Check-in from 3 pm, check-out by 11 am. Parking is free for residents but very limited, so a space must be reserved.
- Children Welcome at any age, with free cots and a children's menu in the Parsonage Grill.
- Pets Only guide dogs and assistance dogs.
Getting there
Flying to Oxford.
Private jets land at London Oxford Airport in Kidlington, about twenty minutes north by car, our estimate. For scheduled flights, Heathrow is about eighty minutes away on the coach that runs day and night, with a stop two minutes from the hotel; the hotel can also book a car.
- Paris 55 min
- Edinburgh 1 h 00
- Geneva 1 h 25
- Nice 1 h 50
- New York 7 h 30 long-range jet
Questions
What guests ask first.
- How many MICHELIN Keys does the Old Parsonage Hotel have?
- One. It was the first hotel in Oxford to receive a Key, in 2025, and kept it the following year.
- Is the Old Parsonage in the centre of Oxford?
- Yes. It stands at the head of St Giles, about ten minutes on foot from the High Street and twenty from the railway station.
- Can we bring our dog?
- Only guide dogs and assistance dogs can stay at the hotel.
- Can SkyCourtage arrange the flight to Oxford?
- Yes. We arrange Business and First Class seats on scheduled airlines and private jet charter to Oxford, with one final price, our margin included. The hotel is booked with the hotel or through our booking partner.
Also in Oxford
Other hotels worth the trip.
- Thyme Two MICHELIN Keys for a cluster of seventeenth-century estate buildings turned into 31 rooms, with a spa and a spring-fed pool open in summer.
- The Feathers Hotel at Woodstock Twenty-three rooms in a building from the 1600s on Market Street, once a sanatorium.
- Artist Residence Oxfordshire A sixteenth-century farmhouse that became a village pub, now fifteen rooms mixing antiques with contemporary art.
Staying at Old Parsonage Hotel?
Book the room, then the flight.
Rates and availability come from the hotel itself. For the journey to Oxford, a Business or First Class seat or an aircraft of your own: tell us the date and we come back with one final price, our margin included.
Opens the hotel's own website. We have no arrangement with the hotel.