The Rose and Crown (Punch Taverns)
North Parade Avenue, Oxford (no phone number that I can find)

Monday to Friday 11am to 2.40pm, 5pm to 11pm
Saturday 11am to 2.40pm, 6pm to 11pm
Sunday 12 noon to 3pm, 7pm to 10.30pm

    * Burton Ale £2.38 (10.xii.1999)

This is a convertible pub, with a canopy out the back which can be pulled 
open in clement weather. Unfortunately it drips in heavy rain. If you're 
lucky, the landlord, who is what you might call a character, will show you 
into `the cottage' which is a small lounge which seats about a dozen at 
the far end of the garden.

The Rose and Crown has about three pub signs on the frontage, and three 
pub signs out the back. And everything they've ever said about this pub is 
true --- there is no jukebox, no piped music and no games machines. Except 
the range of ales, which came to, at most, two. When I was there in 
January, someone was asked to pay 37/- for his ABC bitter (Aylesbury 
Brewing Company) (they've replaced it with something from Adnams now). 
They do pistachio nuts by volume like in the Harcourt Arms in Jericho. The 
owner, as adverted to on the sign outside, which has been edited from "A 
HALLS PUB" to "A.HALL'S PUB" is a Mr A. Hall.

A retrograde step: the Bulmers cider has moved from being real to being 
keg. And it's got sweeter, apparently. But in summer they do a rather 
expensive barbecue out the back, and the coffee's nice, and comes in a two 
and a half cup cafetiere. Roughly.

No angle, and if you believe what you read, the pub was nearly closed in 
the 1960s because of the state of the facilities. Out back for heating 
purposes they have magnificent devices (also at the Trout) which look like 
a cross between lampposts and the Martians from the War of the Worlds. 
They roar and sparkle like a bunsen burner seen through gauze. There's two 
of them, and an advert for Burma Sauce. "The only `sauce' I dare give 
Father", apparently. (10.xii.1999)