The Royal Blenheim (Halls)
St Ebbe's Street, Oxford

Monday to Friday 11am to 11pm
Saturday 12 noon to 11pm
Sunday: closed

Marstons Pedigree £1.90 (9.xi.1998)

Surveillance:
It's being refurbished again.  They seem to be gutting it and installing
new innards. (2003-10-07)

Original review:
It's very different these days to the townie pub it was under the last 
management. It has a rather scrubbed, plush and safe feel to it. Under the 
new bloke running it (who had a tight t-shirt and an earring), the 
wallpaper seems to have thickened and grown more comforting without 
actually being replaced. The hydra-headed lamppost in the middle of the 
room seems to be new, but was there before.

Decent pint of Marstons Pedigree, which is a huge step up from the Royal 
Blenheim's previous incarnation. Another change is that it's heavily 
frequented by women now, a gender you never used to see in here. It's also 
been drawing the traditional clientele of the Jolly Farmers away in 
droves, not to mention its female counterpart, which hasn't before now had 
a pub of choice in Oxford.

Good pub. I shall be interested to see how it competes with the Slug and 
Lettuce when that opens.(9.ix.1998)

Kate Pugh adds:
I think you should mention the toilets in the review. The ladies' has a 
mural of two bare male torsos (without faces). Someone has improved the 
irony value of the left-hand one by adding stomach hair. According to Rob 
(and you can probably verify this), the men's has Pamela Anderson.

Editorial note:
Sadly, all this lavatorial entertainment has passed away what with the new 
management. (9.xi.1998)