University Church of St Mary the Virgin

Fairly simple church but beautiful stained glass. You need to pay to climb the tower but awesome views of four sides of Oxford. The best view of all the colleges and spires.

This church is hard to miss due to its size and beauty and its just by chance that we were walking down the room and saw that you could go in and visit - even more surprised and excited when we saw you could climb the tower to the top. I believe the tower is 13th century and its defiantly worth the small fee to climb - the views of the city from the top were amazing and it even gives you a better view of some of the wonderful architecture oxford has to offer. Its especially interesting to see from of the graffiti cravings in the stone - some of them look extremely old. Wish I had more time to look round the church - but what I saw was spectacular. The stained glass windows were beautiful. Will defiantly be going back for a better look round.

My daughter and I visited the church purely to climb the tower which costs £5 each. We had a small wait of about 10 minutes as they limit the number of visitors in the tower due to the confined space up there. Once we ascended the narrow spiral staircase, while hoping that we did not meet anyone who was descending, we were able to see some breathtaking views of the city. The space atop is very narrow so some shuffling of bodies is required to pass anyone. There are 3 sides of the tower to access.

I'm reviewing the cafe located athe ground floor by the name of Vaults and green. Amazing atmosphere, great location, recommended to sit outside and eat. Loved the green salads, pumpkin soup and freshly brewed coffee. They serve wine as well.

Excellent views from the church tower, for just £5 per ticket. The church itself is lovely with wonderful stained glass windows and a great cafe. We visited on a weekday and waited about 10 minutes to enter the tower. The tower is old of course, and has narrow steep stairs. Most folks maintained etiquette going up and down the stairs (you can either have a group going up or down at a time).