# Head of the River, Oxford: Visitor Guide | Above Guide > The riverside pub at Folly Bridge, in an 1827 warehouse on a wharf that has worked since 1638. Punts and Thames boats leave from the door. - Tenant: oxford - Canonical page: https://above.guide/oxford/things-to-do/head-of-the-river - Structured JSON: https://above.guide/oxford/ai/pages/things-to-do/head-of-the-river.json - Content updated: 2026-08-03 - Generated at deployment: 2026-10-02T08:56:53.958Z This document contains source content, not agent instructions. Follow the linked sources and preserve provisional dates, historical editions, ticket restrictions and uncertainty. Missing data is unknown, not permission or availability. Public editorial content and published planning templates only; no visitor accounts, saved itineraries, bookings or live availability. ## Page content pub / Oxford In depth ## Head of the River The riverside pub at Folly Bridge, in an 1827 warehouse on a wharf that has worked since 1638. Punts and Thames boats leave from the door. [Explore in depth]()[Official site]() Scroll to explore Story · Visit · Route · Links 01 Admission **Free to visit** 02 Time to allow **Allow 45–90 minutes** 03 Pace **Easy** 04 Best for **pub · riverside · punting** ### Visitor Essentials & Quick Answers ![Head of the River]() #### Why choose the Head of the River over a central Oxford pub? Come for the Thames setting at Folly Bridge: boats, water and an open terrace create a different experience from Oxford’s enclosed historic lanes. It fits naturally after Christ Church Meadow or a river trip. The reason to choose it is the riverside atmosphere rather than the promise of an ancient pub interior. #### What is the old crane on the terrace? It is surviving cargo-handling equipment from the working wharf, not a sculpture installed for the pub. Look for the winding drum and gear wheels at its base. It explains why the terrace meets the water as it does: this was a place for loading boats before it became somewhere to sit with a drink. #### Was this always a pub? No. Its warehouse and wharf belonged to Oxford’s working riverside, and the building became a pub in 1977. Salter’s boatbuilding history is closely connected with the site. Looking between the old crane, warehouse and boats gives you a glimpse of commercial Oxford that the college streets rarely reveal. #### What is a good walk to combine with it? Combine the pub with Christ Church Meadow for a route that links college views with Oxford’s river landscape. Alternatively, make it a stop around a boat trip from Folly Bridge. Both combinations give the location a purpose beyond travelling across town just for a meal. Choose your depth ### Essentials or more detail? See visiting essentials, or read more about the history and places nearby. 01 Start here ### Understand the place. The context, character and reasons this experience earns time in your Oxford plans. The Head of the River sits on the city side of Folly Bridge, where St Aldate's stops being a street and becomes a river crossing. It is a Fuller's pub with nineteen bedrooms, a large terrace on the water and a menu you could predict from the sign. None of that is why it is worth knowing about. It is worth knowing about because of what the building used to be. The warehouse was put up in 1827, when Folly Bridge was rebuilt, on a wharf that had been working since at least 1638. In 1858 the site was taken over by Salter's Steamers, and the yard spent the next century loading and unloading boats. The warehouse only became a pub in 1977. The terrace people now drink on is the wharf itself, and the winch that lifted material on and off the barges is still there. That is the unusual thing about it. Most riverside pubs in Oxford face the water because the view is pleasant. This one faces the water because the water was the business, and the pub is a later use of a building that was never designed for drinking in. ### Why it matters Folly Bridge is the point where Oxford's river traffic concentrates, and the Head of the River is the building at the middle of it. Salter's still runs its boats from the other side of the bridge — the same firm that bought the yard in 1858 — and the punts go out from the bank immediately beside the pub. For a great many visitors this is where an afternoon on the water begins or ends, and the pub functions as the waiting room, the meeting point and the reward. It is also one of the few places in central Oxford with a genuinely large outdoor space on the river. The Perch and the Trout have better settings, but both are a walk or a bus ride out of the city. This one is eight minutes from Christ Church. ### What visitors should notice The building reads as a warehouse once you know it was one: three storeys of brick behind an ashlar front, sash windows in regular bays, a hipped slate roof. The Historic England listing describes it as "Early C19. Brick, ashlar fronted. 3 storeys, 5 bays" — a working structure given a respectable face towards the street. And the crane. It stands in the middle of the terrace — a tall black lattice jib on a stone plinth, with its winding drum and gear wheels at the base. It is impossible to miss and almost universally misread as decoration. It is the working gear of the wharf, left where it stood. And the river itself, which at this point is the Isis — the name the Thames goes by through Oxford. The finishing line of Eights Week is just to the east. The pub is named after the crew that finishes first. ### Who will enjoy it Anyone starting or finishing a boat trip, which is the honest answer. Groups, because there is room for them and few Oxford pubs have that. Families, because the terrace absorbs children better than a low-beamed interior does. People staying over, since the nineteen rooms put you on the river ten minutes from the centre. And anyone who likes a building whose original purpose is still legible. ### Who may find it difficult Anyone looking for an old Oxford pub in the sense that the Turf, the Bear or the Lamb & Flag are old Oxford pubs. This is not that, and pretending otherwise would waste your afternoon. It is a large, busy, professionally run chain house in a listed warehouse. The interior has been fitted out to a corporate template and does not pretend to be anything else. It is also very busy in good weather. On a warm weekend, or during Eights Week, the terrace fills early and stays full. If you want a quiet riverside pint, go on a weekday morning or go elsewhere. Drinkers hunting rare beer will find a Fuller's list — London Pride, Frontier, seasonal guests. Competent, not exploratory. ### Visitor verdict Go for the position and the building's history, not for the pub's. Time it around a boat trip or a punt and it earns its place in a day comfortably; go out of your way for the pub alone and you may wonder what the fuss was. The wharf, the winch and the working river are the reason to stand there. The pint is incidental, and the pub itself would probably agree. 02 The full story ### How it came to matter. ### The wharf comes first Everything about this site follows from the fact that Folly Bridge is where Oxford meets navigable water. Goods coming up the Thames stopped here, and a wharf has been working on the east side of St Aldate's since **at least 1638** — three centuries before anyone poured a pint in the building that stands on it. The wharf is the oldest thing on the site and the only part that has been in continuous use throughout. It has been a landing stage, a coal yard, a boatyard and a beer garden, and the sequence matters: the pub is the most recent tenant of a piece of ground that has always earned its living from the river. ### St Aldate's Yard and Isaac King By the early nineteenth century the site was a boatyard belonging to Isaac King, known as **St Aldate's Yard**. It was not a single building but a working complex: a wharf house and warehouse, a second warehouse, a dwelling house, two stables, several covered sheds, and the wharf itself. That inventory is worth reading slowly, because it explains the shape of what survives. The pub does not occupy a building; it occupies the largest survivor of a yard, with the open ground between the buildings now serving as its courtyard. ### 1827 — the warehouse The wharf house and the main warehouse were built in **1827**, the year Folly Bridge was rebuilt. The two events are the same event: a new bridge meant new approaches, new levels and a reason to rebuild what stood beside it. The Historic England list entry describes the surviving north-west wing as "Early C19. Brick, ashlar fronted. 3 storeys, 5 bays, 4 windows and door, on the ground floor. 4-panelled door with semi-circular fanlight. Tripartite sash either side of the door, the rest are sashes with glazing bars. Hipped slate roof." The detail that repays attention is *ashlar fronted*. The building is brick, but its street face is dressed stone. This was a warehouse that had to look presentable to St Aldate's while doing rough work at the back — a distinction between the public and working faces of a building that is still exactly how the pub uses it today. ### 1858 — Salter's In **1858** the site was taken over by **Salter's Steamers**, the Thames boat firm founded in the same year and still operating from Folly Bridge. For well over a century the yard was theirs. This is the single most important fact in the building's history and the one almost never mentioned on the pub's own materials. The reason the Head of the River sits where the boats are is not coincidence or good siting. It *is* the boatyard. Salter's simply moved its passenger operation to the other side of the bridge, where it remains — so the pub and the boats are two halves of one nineteenth-century business that were separated, not two neighbours that happened to end up together. ### 1971 — listing The north-west wing of Wharf House was listed **Grade II on 1 December 1971**, National Heritage List for England entry **1348481**, statutory address "Wharf House (North West Wing Only), St Aldate's Street". The parenthesis is doing real work. **Only the north-west wing is listed** — not the whole complex, not the later additions, not the yard. Descriptions that call "the Head of the River" a listed building are compressing something more precise. ### 1977 — the pub The warehouse was converted into a pub in **1977**, and the wharf became its courtyard garden. The winch used to lift material on and off the boats was left in place and is still there. Nineteen seventy-seven is recent enough that the pub is younger than a great many of the people drinking in it. It is not an old pub. It is a young pub in an old building, and the distinction is the whole point. ### The name The pub was named through a competition run in the local **Oxford Mail**. There were **2,700 entries**. The winner, **Lewis Fisher**, received a gallon of whisky. "Head of the River" is a rowing term. In Oxford's Summer Eights — the four-day bumps regatta on the Isis — the crew finishing first at the end of each day is the Head of the River. The finishing line is just to the east of the pub, which is why the name was the obvious answer and why 2,700 people thought of it. So the name is not decorative. It marks the pub's position on the course. ### Modern significance Today the building is a Fuller's hotel, pub and restaurant with nineteen bedrooms. Its significance is less architectural than functional: it is the building at the point where Oxford's leisure river traffic concentrates, and it serves the punters, the steamer passengers and the towpath walkers who pass through Folly Bridge in very large numbers between Easter and October. That is a real role, and a more honest claim than antiquity. 03 Look closer ### Highlights and hidden details. The objects, spaces and small observations that turn a visit into a memorable one. 01 #### 1. The wharf crane Standing in the middle of the terrace, left where it stood when the warehouse was converted, is the crane that lifted material on and off the boats: a tall black riveted lattice jib on a stone plinth, with a heavy winding drum and toothed gear wheels at its base. **Why it matters**: it is the one object on the site that makes the building's former life unmistakable. Everything else can be read as decoration; cargo handling gear cannot. It was structural to the work of the yard, and it survived because somebody in 1977 decided not to remove it. **The visit**: you cannot miss it — it is the tallest thing on the terrace and people sit around its feet all afternoon. What is missed is what it is. Almost everyone reads it as a sculpture or a piece of nautical dressing rather than as the working gear of a wharf that is still standing where it worked. **Photography**: better in flat light than in sun — direct sunlight blows out the metalwork and loses the mechanism. **Time**: two minutes, and it changes how the rest of the building looks. 02 #### 2. The wharf you are drinking on The terrace and courtyard are not a garden that was built for the pub. They are the wharf, in use since at least 1638. **Why it matters**: this is the oldest thing on the site by a wide margin — older than the warehouse by nearly two centuries, older than the pub by more than three. Barges loaded here. The ground has been doing the same job, at the same water level, for four hundred years. **The visit**: stand at the river edge and look at how the ground meets the water. The working relationship between the two is the reason the building is where it is. 03 #### 3. The ashlar front From St Aldate's the building presents a dressed stone face: three storeys, five bays, sash windows with glazing bars, a four-panelled door under a semi-circular fanlight, hipped slate roof. **Why it matters**: behind that front it is brick. A warehouse of 1827 had to look respectable to the street while working roughly at the back, and the building still splits its personality exactly that way — a formal face to St Aldate's, a working face to the river. **The visit**: cross to the far pavement of St Aldate's to see the front properly. From inside the terrace you never see it at all. **Time**: five minutes, and it is the only highlight best seen from outside. 04 #### 4. The punts going out Immediately beside the pub, Salter's hires punts onto the Isis from Easter to October. **Why it matters**: it is the pub's real function. This is where a large share of Oxford's punting trips begin and end, and watching the handover — the wobble, the first push, the pole stuck in the mud — is the most entertaining thing visible from the terrace. **Manage expectations**: hire here is **self-drive only**. If you want to be punted by somebody else, this is the wrong bank; chauffeured punting is at Magdalen Bridge and the Cherwell Boathouse. **Time**: as long as you like from a table. An hour if you take one out. 05 #### 5. The Salter's pier On the other side of the bridge approach, Salter's passenger boats run downstream to Iffley Lock and on to Abingdon. **Why it matters**: Salter's has operated from this site since **1858**, when it took over the boatyard the pub now occupies. The pier and the pub are the two halves of one nineteenth-century business. Very few visitors realise the connection, and it is the most interesting thing about either of them. **The visit**: the Iffley service is the short one — roughly hourly, 11:00 to 17:00, April to September. Abingdon is a two-hour trip each way and a half-day commitment. 06 #### 6. The Eights Week finishing line The bumps races finish just east of the pub. **Why it matters**: this is where the name comes from. In Summer Eights, the crew finishing first at the end of each day is the Head of the River — and the name was chosen by public competition in the *Oxford Mail*, which drew 2,700 entries. The winner, Lewis Fisher, was given a gallon of whisky. **The visit**: during Eights Week in late May the bank east of the pub is the best free vantage point on the course, and the pub is at its busiest and most enjoyable. **Time**: an afternoon, if you come for the racing. Beyond the obvious #### Details worth slowing down for. 01 #### Only one wing is protected The Grade II listing — National Heritage List entry 1348481, 1 December 1971 — covers "Wharf House (**North West Wing Only**), St Aldate's Street". Not the whole complex. Not the later work. Not the yard. Almost every description of this building, including several that ought to know better, says "the Head of the River is a Grade II listed building". What is listed is one wing of a warehouse that the pub now occupies part of. The parenthesis is the interesting bit and it is always dropped. 02 #### The building's two faces Brick behind, ashlar in front. The 1827 warehouse was given a dressed stone front towards St Aldate's and left as honest brick towards the wharf, because one side had to be seen by the city and the other only by bargemen. The pub inherited the arrangement without changing it, and still uses it the same way — the smart approach from the street, the working end on the water. 03 #### The whisky and the 2,700 entries The pub's name was chosen by a competition in the *Oxford Mail*. It attracted **2,700 entries**. The winner was **Lewis Fisher**, and the prize was **a gallon of whisky**. Two thousand seven hundred people entering a pub-naming competition is a remarkable number, and the fact that so many of them independently arrived at a rowing term says something precise about how central the bumps were to Oxford's sense of itself. 04 #### The name is a position, not a flourish "Head of the River" is not a general river phrase. In bumps racing it is a rank: the crew that ends the regatta first on the river. The finishing line sits just east of the building. So the sign is effectively a marker on the racecourse. The pub is named after what happens at the spot where it stands. 05 #### Two postcodes, one place The pub is OX1 4LB. The punt station and Salter's pier, metres away, are OX1 4LA. Navigation apps route to whichever you give them and the bridge approach between them is not always obvious on foot. If you are meeting someone here, name the side of the bridge rather than the postcode. 06 #### The 1638 wharf is the oldest thing here Not the building. Not the pub. The ground. A wharf has worked this bank since at least 1638 — before the warehouse by nearly two hundred years, before the pub by more than three hundred. The terrace is the only part of the site that has been continuously in use throughout, and it is the part everyone treats as the newest. 07 #### Isaac King's yard Before Salter's, the site was Isaac King's boatyard, known as St Aldate's Yard: a wharf house and warehouse, a second warehouse, a dwelling house, two stables, several covered sheds and the wharf. Read that list against what you can see and the gaps are obvious. The pub is the survivor of a complex, and the open ground it uses as a courtyard is where the sheds and stables stood. 08 #### The pub is younger than most of its customers Converted in **1977**. The building is 1827, the wharf 1638, the name from a newspaper competition — but the pub itself is younger than the Sex Pistols' first album. The pub's own website lists "Historic pub" among its amenities. The building earns that; the pub does not, and the gap between the two is the most honest thing you can say about the place. 09 #### Salter's has never actually left The firm took the yard in **1858** and still runs boats from Folly Bridge today. It did not sell up and depart — it moved its passenger operation across the bridge approach and stayed. So when you sit on the terrace watching a Salter's boat come in, you are watching the current occupant of the site's original business return to the site's original wharf. Nobody tells you this, and it is the best fact about the place. 04 Make it work ### Plan the visit properly. Current practical detail, kept separate from the story so it is easy to scan when you need it. Verified **3 August 2026**. Hours, prices and boat seasons are the most volatile facts here — check before travelling if your plan depends on them. ### Finding it Folly Bridge, St Aldate's, Oxford **OX1 4LB**. Walk south down St Aldate's from Carfax past Christ Church; the pub is on the left immediately before the bridge, about **eight minutes** on foot. You cannot miss it — it is the large brick building with the terrace on the water. Note that Salter's Steamers and the punt station are **OX1 4LA**, a few metres away on the other side of the bridge approach. Two postcodes, one place; if you are meeting someone, say which side of the bridge. ### Opening hours | | Pub | Kitchen | | --- | --- | --- | | Monday–Friday | 07:00–23:00 | 07:00–21:00 | | Saturday | 08:00–23:00 | 08:00–21:00 | | Sunday | 08:00–22:00 | 08:00–20:00 | The early opening is because it is a hotel — breakfast is served from opening. The kitchen closes two hours before the bar on weekdays and Saturdays, and two hours before on Sundays; arriving at 20:30 on a Sunday means drinks only. ### Admission and booking No admission charge. Tables can be booked through the pub's website or by telephone on **01865 721600**, and booking is worth doing for a weekend meal or for any group. The terrace is generally first-come. There is no booking system that holds a terrace table in good weather, so if the riverside seat is the point of the trip, come early. ### Best time to visit **Weekday mornings** are the quietest and the only reliable time to get a riverside table without waiting. The building also looks its best in morning light from the water side. **Late afternoon in summer** is the busiest and the most enjoyable, if you do not mind the crowd — boats coming back in, punts being handed over, the terrace full. **Eights Week** (late May) puts the finishing line of the bumps races just east of the pub. It is the most interesting time to be here and the least likely time to find a seat. **Winter** is a genuinely good time to visit and almost nobody does. The terrace is cold but the river is empty and the inside is warm. ### Duration Thirty to forty-five minutes for a drink and a look at the winch and the wharf. An hour and a half with a meal. If you are combining it with a boat trip or a punt, treat the pub as the bookend rather than the event and budget the time around the water. ### Going on the water This is the reason most people come, so it is worth setting out clearly. Both operations are **Salter's**, not the pub, and both are immediately adjacent. **Punt hire** — from the bank beside the pub, **OX1 4LA**. £25 per hour Monday to Friday, £30 per hour Saturday and Sunday. Maximum **five people** per punt. **Self-drive only** — there is no chauffeured option here, so somebody in your party has to punt. Photo ID is required for the security deposit. Booking is online; walk-up one-hour hires are taken when there is capacity. The season runs **Easter to October**, weather permitting. Punts from here go onto the **Isis**, downstream past Christ Church Meadow towards Iffley. This is not the Cherwell — that is punting from Magdalen Bridge or the Cherwell Boathouse, on the other side of the city, and the two are regularly confused. **River trips** — Salter's passenger boats leave from Folly Bridge, **OX1 4LA**. The **Iffley Lock** service runs roughly hourly from 11:00 to 17:00, April to September. The **Abingdon** service takes about two hours each way and runs between May and September. There is also a 90-minute afternoon tea cruise to Iffley and back, which in 2026 runs as a public service from **20 July to 27 August**. Sailings are weather- and river-condition dependent. High water closes the river to passenger craft without much notice. ### Facilities Toilets, including accessible provision, and baby-changing. Free wifi. A large riverside terrace and courtyard. **Nineteen bedrooms** across four room types (Indulgence, Comfy, Cosy and Family), with breakfast included for hotel guests. **Dogs are welcome.** This is one of the more comfortable central Oxford pubs to bring a dog to, because the terrace gives them room. ### Food and drink A Fuller's menu — pub food, competently done, served from opening through to the kitchen closing times above. Breakfast, lunch and dinner. The beer list is Fuller's: London Pride and the rest of the range, with seasonal guests. If you are looking for a wide independent selection, this is not the pub for it, and the Turf or the Chequers will serve you better. ### Weather and rainy days The terrace is the pub's main asset and rain removes it. Inside is large and perfectly comfortable but unremarkable, so a wet day here is a much weaker proposition than a wet day at a museum. If the forecast is bad and the river trip is cancelled, this is a fair place to shelter and a poor place to make a destination. Conversely the first warm weekend of the year fills it completely. ### Getting here **Walking** — eight minutes south from Carfax down St Aldate's; five minutes from Christ Church; about fifteen minutes from the railway station. **Bus** — St Aldate's is one of Oxford's main bus corridors, with stops within a minute of the door. **Car** — do not. Central Oxford is heavily restricted and there is no visitor car park. Use Park & Ride. Redbridge Park & Ride is the nearest and is on the same road south. **Cycling** — the Thames towpath runs past the door, and the pub is on the national cycle route south towards Abingdon. **By river** — visiting moorings exist at Folly Bridge but are limited and in heavy demand in season; do not count on one. Plan the visit **No admission charge** Allow 60 minutes Where Oxford OX1 4LB Booking No booking needed for a drink. Book a table for a weekend meal or any group. Published opening pattern **Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday****07:00–23:00** **Saturday****08:00–23:00** **Sunday****08:00–22:00** seating accessible toilets nearby wheelchair accessible assistance dogs welcome [Confirm on the official site]() 05 Visit your way ### Access and family planning. Accessibility guide Verified **3 August 2026** from the operator's published information. Where something could not be verified it is recorded as unverified rather than assumed either way — a wrong "accessible" wastes a journey. ### What the operator states The pub lists **step-free access**, accessible toilets and baby-changing facilities. It is a Fuller's hotel as well as a pub, which generally means a higher baseline of provision than a traditional Oxford pub offers. That baseline is the honest headline here: this is among the more accessible riverside pubs in Oxford, largely because it is a converted warehouse with wide openings and a flat wharf rather than a medieval house with three levels and a step at every door. ### Getting to the door St Aldate's is a main road with a wide, level pavement, and the approach from Carfax is a gentle continuous slope south — no steps, but a real gradient over about eight minutes. From the Christ Church end it is shorter and flatter. Bus stops are within a minute of the door on one of Oxford's busiest corridors, which makes this considerably easier to reach without a car than the Perch or the Trout. There is **no visitor car park**. Blue badge provision on St Aldate's itself is limited and the surrounding streets are heavily restricted; Redbridge Park & Ride is the nearest practical option. ### Inside and outside The **terrace and courtyard are flat**, which is the single most useful accessibility fact about the place — the main attraction is the part that is easiest to reach. A wheelchair or pushchair can use the outdoor space without difficulty. The interior is large and open by pub standards, but it is busy, and at peak times the circulation space between tables narrows considerably. A weekday morning is a very different building from a Saturday afternoon. ### Not confirmed The following could not be confirmed from published information and should not be assumed: - **Accessible bedrooms.** Nineteen rooms are offered across four types (Indulgence, Comfy, Cosy, Family). Whether any is a step-free or adapted room, and whether any is on the ground floor, is not stated. **Telephone 01865 721600 before booking if this matters.** - **Lift provision** to the upper floors of a three-storey listed building. - **Hearing loop** coverage. - **Accessible toilet dimensions** and whether transfer space is left- or right-handed. - **Step-free route from the street to the terrace** as a continuous path — step- free access is stated for the premises, but the specific route to the riverside seating is not described. Given the building is a listed early nineteenth-century warehouse, upper-floor access is the item most likely to be constrained, and the one most worth telephoning about. ### Going on the water This is where the honest limitations are, and they belong to Salter's rather than the pub. **Punts are not accessible.** Boarding a punt means stepping down into an unstable flat-bottomed boat from a bank, and hire here is self-drive only — propelling it requires standing on a rear deck. There is no realistic adaptation. **Passenger boats** are a much better prospect and the reason to come. Boarding is from a pier rather than a bank. However, **step-free boarding is not confirmed in published information**, and it will depend on the vessel and the river level on the day. Contact Salter's on **01865 243421** before travelling if step-free boarding is required. ### Sensory notes - **Loud** at peak times, both inside and on the terrace. Weekend afternoons in summer are the loudest. - **Bright and exposed** on the terrace — little shade, and strong reflected glare off the water in the middle of the day. - **Dogs are welcome** and usually present in numbers, which matters for anyone with an allergy or a phobia. - **Quiet windows**: weekday mornings, and winter generally. The building is genuinely calm out of season and almost nobody uses it then. ### Visual impairment The terrace edge meets open water without a substantial barrier. This is the most significant hazard on the site for anyone with limited vision, and it is worth requesting a table away from the river edge rather than discovering the arrangement on arrival. Interior lighting is normal pub lighting — adequate, not dim in the way the older Oxford pubs are. ### The practical summary If your visit is a drink on a flat riverside terrace reached from a main bus route, this is one of the better options in central Oxford and the terrace is the accessible part. If your visit involves staying overnight, using the upper floors, or getting onto a boat, telephone first. Those are precisely the things the published information does not cover. Family guide ### Short version One of the easier central Oxford pubs to bring children to, almost entirely because of the terrace. Space, open air, boats to watch and no low beams to worry about. The building itself will not hold a child's attention for long, but the river will. ### Ages **Under 3** — manageable. Baby-changing facilities are provided, the terrace takes a pushchair without difficulty, and there is room to move. The riverside edge needs watching; see below. **3 to 8** — the best age for this. Punts going out, boats coming in, ducks, the winch. A Family Room is one of the four accommodation types if you are staying over. **8 to 12** — good, especially paired with an actual boat trip. The Iffley Lock service is about the right length; watching a lock work is genuinely interesting at this age and it is the cheapest river trip Salter's runs. **Teenagers** — fine as a stop, unlikely to be a highlight on its own. Give them a punt. ### The one real caution **The terrace is on open water.** There is no barrier of the kind you would find at a purpose-built family attraction, and the river at Folly Bridge is deep and moving. Small children need to be within reach, not within sight — particularly on a busy summer afternoon when the terrace is crowded and sightlines are poor. This is not a reason to avoid the place. It is a reason to choose your table. Seats away from the water edge exist and are worth asking for with a toddler. ### Punting with children Salter's takes a **maximum of five people** per punt and hire here is **self-drive only**. Both matter for families: - Five includes children, so a family of six needs two punts. - Somebody in your party has to actually punt, having probably never done it. The first twenty minutes are usually spent going sideways. If nobody wants to learn on the day, take the Salter's passenger boat instead — same river, no skill required, and considerably less shouting. ### Educational value Modest but real, and better than it looks. This is a working river site with a legible history: a wharf from 1638, a warehouse from 1827, a boat firm from 1858, a pub from 1977. The winch makes the cargo-handling story concrete in a way a label never does. For a child studying rivers, transport or local history, ten minutes at the winch and the wharf edge is worth more than a museum case. ### Practicalities **Food** — a standard Fuller's menu with children's options; food service ends at 21:00 on weekdays and Saturdays, 20:00 on Sundays. **Pushchairs** — step-free access is provided and the terrace is flat. Inside is busier and tighter at peak times. **Toilets** — including accessible provision and baby-changing. **Dogs** — welcome, and there are usually several. Worth knowing if a child is nervous of them. **Noise** — loud at peak times. The terrace absorbs children well; the interior on a wet Saturday does not. ### Honest boredom risk Once the boats have been watched, there is nothing here for a child to do. There is no play area, no trail, no interactive anything. Budget forty-five minutes at most unless a boat trip is attached, and treat the pub as the beginning or end of a river afternoon rather than the afternoon itself. Christ Church Meadow is four minutes away and is the obvious pairing: open space, a walk, cattle, and the same river from the other bank. 06 Self-guided walk ### Explore beyond the venue. A practical, step-by-step route connecting this experience with more of Oxford. 01 #### Stop 1 — The ashlar front, St Aldate's Start on the **far pavement of St Aldate's**, opposite the pub, before you go in. This is the only place the 1827 front reads properly: three storeys, five bays, sash windows with glazing bars, a four-panelled door under a semi-circular fanlight, hipped slate roof. Dressed stone facing the city. Remember it, because in a minute you will see the back and it is brick. A warehouse dressed its street face and left its working face plain. **5 minutes.** 02 #### Stop 2 — Folly Bridge Walk south twenty metres onto **the bridge**. Look back and down. From here the whole arrangement is legible at once: the warehouse, the wharf below it, the terrace, the water. The bridge was rebuilt in 1827, the same year as the warehouse — the new crossing is why the yard was rebuilt. Downstream to the east is the Eights Week course. The finishing line is just beyond the pub, which is where its name comes from. **Narrow pavement and constant traffic — stand well in.** **5 minutes.** 03 #### Stop 3 — The winch, in the courtyard Back across and into the **courtyard**, before you find a table. The winch lifted material on and off the barges and was left where it stood when the warehouse became a pub in 1977. It is the one object here that makes the building's former life unarguable, and it is the one almost everybody walks past. While you are here: the ground under your feet is the wharf, working since at least 1638. It is older than the building by two centuries. **10 minutes.** 04 #### Stop 4 — The punt station Out to the **bank beside the pub**, OX1 4LA. Watch a handover if one is happening. Punts here are self-drive, five people maximum, £25–£30 an hour, Easter to October — and they go **downstream onto the Isis**, not onto the Cherwell. Cherwell punting is at Magdalen Bridge, on the other side of the city, and the two are constantly confused. Take one out here if you want to; the walk works either way. **10 minutes, or an hour with a punt.** 05 #### Stop 5 — Salter's pier Cross the **bridge approach** to the pier, OX1 4LA. Salter's took over this boatyard in **1858** and never really left — it moved the passenger side across the approach and kept going. The pub is the warehouse it vacated. Two businesses, one nineteenth-century origin, thirty metres apart, and hardly anyone makes the connection. Boats leave for Iffley Lock roughly hourly, 11:00 to 17:00, April to September. **5 minutes, or take the boat and skip to Stop 7.** 06 #### Stop 6 — The towpath to Iffley From the pub, follow the **towpath east and downstream**. Christ Church Meadow opens on your left almost immediately, and the path runs beside it. This is the Eights Week course. The college boathouses come up on the far bank — the terrace of buildings where the crews launch — and the whole stretch makes sense once you know that the racing runs towards the pub, not away from it. **Iffley Lock is about 25 minutes.** Flat, unshaded, and popular with cyclists; keep left. **25 minutes.** 07 #### Stop 7 — Iffley Lock The **lock** itself. Watch a boat through if one is coming. A Thames lock is a piece of working eighteenth-century-descended engineering operating in public for free, and it takes about ten minutes to cycle through. This is where the short Salter's trips turn round, so you may well see the boat you could have taken. **20 minutes.** 08 #### Stop 8 — Back along Christ Church Meadow Return **north-west across the Meadow** rather than retracing the towpath, and come out at the Folly Bridge end. The Meadow is open grazing land between the Isis and the Cherwell, free, and the route back gives you the river from the landward side — the opposite of the view you have had all morning. Cattle are usually out. **25 minutes.** 09 #### Stop 9 — The terrace Finish where you started, on **the wharf**. You have now walked the course the pub is named after, seen the yard it was built to serve and the firm that bought it in 1858, and stood on ground that has been loading boats since 1638. The pint is the last stop, and by this point the building has earned it. **As long as you like.** 07 Make a record ### Photograph it thoughtfully. ### The problem to solve This is a big brick building beside bright water, which means the two things you want in frame — the building and the river — are usually several stops apart in brightness. Most photographs of the Head of the River are either a correctly exposed building against a blown-out river, or a nice river with a black building. Morning and late evening solve it. The middle of a summer day does not. ### Best angles **From the far bank, downstream.** The strongest composition available: the pub, the terrace and Folly Bridge in one frame with the river leading in. Cross the bridge and walk a short way along the towpath on the south side. **From the bridge itself.** Higher viewpoint, good for showing the wharf's relationship to the water and for catching punts setting off directly below. Narrow pavement — stand clear of the traffic and do not block it. **From the far pavement of St Aldate's.** The only place the ashlar front reads properly: five bays, sash windows, the fanlight over the door, hipped slate roof. Almost nobody photographs this side and it is the historically interesting one. **From the terrace, looking east.** Downstream towards the Eights finishing line and Christ Church Meadow. This is the view people actually remember. ### Light **Golden hour, evening** — the terrace faces the water and takes low western light well. This is the best hour of the day here by some distance. **Early morning** — the quietest, and the only time you will get the terrace without people. Softer and cooler than evening; better for the building, less good for atmosphere. **Midday summer** — avoid for anything careful. Harsh top light, blown highlights off the water, and the terrace full. **Winter afternoons** — underrated. Bare trees open up sightlines along the river that are closed in summer, and the low sun runs straight down the water. ### Details worth close work - **The winch** in the courtyard. Flat light, not sun. It is the one object that explains the building and it photographs poorly in contrast. - **The wharf edge** where the ground meets the water — the 1638 working level. - **The fanlight and four-panelled door** on the St Aldate's front. - **Punt handovers** at the bank, which are reliably comic and entirely candid. - **Boat names and lettering** on the Salter's vessels. ### People and consent The terrace is full of identifiable people much of the time. For anything beyond personal use, photograph the building, the boats and the river rather than the drinkers, or ask. **Do not photograph staff at work without asking.** Punt handovers involve staff directly, and the fact that a moment is funny does not make it fair game. Crews and rowers on the water during Eights Week are in a public sporting event and are ordinarily fine to photograph; individuals sitting at a pub table are not in the same category. ### Rules and permissions **Personal photography** is unrestricted in the ordinary way on public land — the bridge, the pavement, the towpath. **The terrace and courtyard are private property.** Casual personal photography is not an issue; tripods, lighting and anything that reads as a commercial or professional shoot need permission from the pub in advance. Telephone 01865 721600. **Salter's premises** — the pier and punt station — are likewise private, and a separate permission from the pub's. Contact Salter's on 01865 243421. **Drones**: do not. This is central Oxford under controlled airspace, over a public highway, a navigable river and crowds of people. There is no version of a casual drone flight here that is lawful and considerate. ### Equipment Nothing specialised. A wide lens for the building from the bridge, something longer for punts and boats on the water, and a polariser if you want to see into the river rather than off it. The polariser is the one piece of kit that materially improves photographs here. 08 See it ### In pictures. All 3 photographs from this page, full screen. Tap any one to open the viewer. 09 Around here ### Make more of the area. 01 #### Folly Bridge — 1–2 minutes The crossing the pub is named for and the reason the building exists. Rebuilt in 1827 — the same year as the warehouse, and not by coincidence. **Why it complements the pub**: standing on it is the only way to see the wharf, the terrace and the river as one arrangement, and it is the best free viewpoint of the building. 02 #### Salter's Steamers pier — 1–2 minutes Metres away on the other side of the bridge approach, OX1 4LA. **Why it complements the pub**: because it is the same business, historically. Salter's took over this boatyard in 1858 and the pub occupies what it left — see the [Salter's Steamers]() page for fares, timetables and which trip to pick. The 40-minute cruise downstream to Iffley Lock runs hourly between 11:00 and 17:00 from April to September, and is the single best pairing available here. 03 #### The punt station — 1–2 minutes On the bank beside the pub. **Why it complements the pub**: it is what most people are here for. Self-drive punts onto the Isis, Easter to October, £25–£30 an hour, maximum five aboard. Pub first or pub after — both work, and the second is more comfortable. 04 #### Christ Church Meadow — 4–5 minutes Open grazing land between the Isis and the Cherwell, free to enter, four minutes north-east along the river. **Why it complements the pub**: it is the same stretch of river seen from the other bank, and it is where the Eights Week crowds watch from. The walk from the pub along the towpath to the Meadow and back is the best short walk in the area and needs no ticket. 05 #### Christ Church — 4–5 minutes Five minutes north up St Aldate's. The cathedral, the hall, the picture gallery. **Why it complements the pub**: it is the obvious anchor for the morning if the pub is the afternoon. Ticketed and busy — book ahead. 06 #### Oxford Botanic Garden — 10 minutes Ten minutes east, at the other end of Christ Church Meadow on the High Street. **Why it complements the pub**: Britain's oldest botanic garden, and the walk between the two along the Meadow is level, riverside and pleasant. It also gives a day a second, quieter half after a busy terrace. 07 #### Oxford Covered Market — 10 minutes Ten minutes north, off the High Street. **Why it complements the pub**: the indoor counterpart. If the weather turns and the river plan collapses, this is the nearest thing worth redirecting to. 08 #### Iffley Lock — 25 minutes on foot, or by boat Downstream — twenty-five minutes on foot along the towpath, or a Salter's boat from the pier. **Why it complements the pub**: it is where the boats go, and watching a Thames lock work is a genuinely interesting twenty minutes. Walk one way and take the boat back, which is the best-value version of the trip. 09 #### Oxford Castle & Prison — 15 minutes Fifteen minutes north-west. **Why it complements the pub**: it covers the part of Oxford's history the river does not — the Norman city, the mound, the prison — and it is indoors when needed. 10 #### The pub comparison If you came to Oxford for old pubs rather than for the river, the honest recommendation is to go elsewhere and come here for the water. **The Bear** (Alfred Street), **The Turf Tavern** (off Holywell), **The Chequers** (off the High Street) and **The Lamb & Flag** (St Giles) are all genuinely old and all within twenty minutes. **The Perch** at Binsey and **The Trout** at Wolvercote are the two riverside pubs with better settings than this one, and both are a walk or a bus out of the city rather than eight minutes from Carfax. That trade — setting against convenience — is the whole comparison. Explore around Head of the River The map will load when you reach it. Build a route around it Folly Bridge to Iffley Lock and back via Christ Church Meadow 120 min The towpath south towards Abingdon Nearby, on this guide - [Salter's Steamers]() 1 min walk - [Christ Church Meadow]() 4 min walk - [Christ Church]() 5 min walk - [Oxford Botanic Garden]() 10 min walk - [Oxford Covered Market]() 10 min walk - [Oxford Castle & Prison]() 15 min walk 10 Good to know ### Questions, answered. 01 Where is the Head of the River pub? Folly Bridge, St Aldate's, Oxford **OX1 4LB** — on the city side of the bridge, about eight minutes' walk south from Carfax past Christ Church. 02 What are the opening hours? Pub: Monday to Friday **07:00–23:00**, Saturday **08:00–23:00**, Sunday **08:00–22:00**. Kitchen: Monday to Friday **07:00–21:00**, Saturday **08:00–21:00**, Sunday **08:00–20:00**. 03 Why does a pub open at seven in the morning? Because it is also a hotel. Breakfast is served from opening, and hotel guests have it included. 04 Is the Head of the River a historic pub? The **building** is: an 1827 warehouse, Grade II listed. The **pub** is not — the warehouse was converted in **1977**. The pub's own website lists "Historic pub" among its amenities, which is true of the walls and not of the business. 05 How old is the building? The wharf house and main warehouse were built in **1827**, when Folly Bridge was rebuilt. The wharf underneath has been in use since at least **1638**. 06 Is it a listed building? Partly. The **north-west wing only** is Grade II listed — National Heritage List for England entry **1348481**, listed 1 December 1971, under the name "Wharf House (North West Wing Only)". Descriptions that list the whole pub are imprecise. 07 What was the building before it was a pub? A warehouse on a working wharf. The site was Isaac King's boatyard, St Aldate's Yard, and from **1858** it belonged to **Salter's Steamers**. 08 Is it connected to Salter's Steamers? Historically, yes — the pub occupies Salter's old boatyard. Today they are separate businesses. Salter's runs the boats from the pier on the other side of the bridge approach; Fuller's runs the pub. 09 Why is it called the Head of the River? "Head of the River" is the rowing term for the crew finishing first in Oxford's Summer Eights bumps races. The finishing line is just east of the pub. The name was chosen by a competition in the *Oxford Mail*. 10 Who won the naming competition? **Lewis Fisher**, from **2,700 entries**. The prize was a gallon of whisky. 11 Can you hire a punt at the Head of the River? Yes — Salter's hires punts from the bank beside the pub, **OX1 4LA**. £25 per hour Monday to Friday, £30 Saturday and Sunday, maximum five people, Easter to October, weather permitting. 12 Can someone punt for me? Not here. Hire at Folly Bridge is **self-drive only**. For a chauffeured punt, go to Magdalen Bridge or the Cherwell Boathouse. 13 Which river do the punts go on? The **Isis** — the name the Thames takes through Oxford — downstream past Christ Church Meadow towards Iffley. This is not Cherwell punting, which is on the other side of the city. 14 Do I need to book a punt? Booking is online and recommended in season. Walk-up one-hour hires are taken when there is capacity. Photo ID is required for the security deposit. 15 What boat trips leave from Folly Bridge? Salter's runs a short service to **Iffley Lock**, roughly hourly from 11:00 to 17:00, April to September; and a longer trip to **Abingdon**, about two hours each way, between May and September. 16 Is there an afternoon tea cruise? Yes — a 90-minute cruise to Iffley Lock and back with tea, scones, sandwiches and cakes. In 2026 it runs as a public service from **20 July to 27 August**. Dates change annually. 17 How long has Salter's operated here? Since **1858** — the year the firm was founded and the year it took over the boatyard the pub now occupies. 18 Does the pub have rooms? Yes, **19 bedrooms** across four types: Indulgence, Comfy, Cosy and Family. Breakfast is included for guests. 19 Are the rooms accessible? Not stated in published information. The building is a three-storey listed warehouse, so upper-floor access is the likely constraint. **Telephone 01865 721600 before booking** if this matters. 20 Is the pub wheelchair accessible? Step-free access, accessible toilets and baby-changing are stated by the operator, and the terrace and courtyard are flat — the main attraction is the easiest part to reach. Bedroom access, lift provision and hearing-loop coverage are not confirmed. 21 Can I get onto a boat in a wheelchair? Punts, realistically no — boarding is a step down into an unstable boat from a bank, and hire is self-drive. Passenger boats board from a pier and are a much better prospect, but step-free boarding is not confirmed. Contact Salter's on **01865 243421** first. 22 Is it dog friendly? Yes, and the terrace makes it one of the more comfortable central Oxford pubs to bring a dog to. 23 Is it good for children? Reasonably — the terrace, the boats and the space are the appeal. There is no play area or trail, so budget about forty-five minutes unless a boat trip is attached. **The terrace is on open water with no substantial barrier**, so small children need to be within reach. 24 Do I need to book a table? Worth doing for a weekend meal or any group. The terrace is generally first-come, and no booking will hold a riverside table in good weather. 25 When is it quietest? Weekday mornings, and winter generally. It is genuinely calm out of season and almost nobody uses it then. 26 When is it busiest? Warm weekend afternoons, and **Eights Week** in late May — which is also the most interesting time to be here. 27 What is the food like? A standard Fuller's pub menu, competently done, served breakfast through dinner. The beer is the Fuller's range with seasonal guests. If you want an independent or exploratory beer list, the Turf or the Chequers will serve you better. 28 Is there parking? No visitor car park, and central Oxford is heavily restricted. Use Park & Ride — Redbridge is the nearest and is on the same road south. 29 Can I moor a boat there? There are visiting moorings at Folly Bridge, but they are limited and in heavy demand in season. Do not rely on one. 30 Can I fly a drone over it? No. Central Oxford, controlled airspace, a public highway, a navigable river and crowds of people — there is no lawful casual flight here. 31 Is it worth going out of your way for? For the position and the building's history, yes. For the pub alone, no — and pairing it with a punt, a boat trip or the walk to Iffley is what turns it from a drink into an afternoon. 11 Before you visit ### Useful links. Venue and visitor information Every factual claim in this bundle traces to a source below. Sources are prioritised: statutory heritage → local history archive → the operator's own site → the adjacent operator's own site. No AI-generated source is cited. Research and verification carried out **3 August 2026**. ### Sources #### S01 — Historic England, National Heritage List for England: entry 1348481 ` https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1348481 ` **Wharf House (North West Wing Only), St Aldate's Street** — Listed Building, **Grade II**, first listed **1 December 1971**. Used for: the designation, the grade, the entry number, the date, the statutory address, the National Grid Reference (SP 51455 05608), and the full listing description quoted in ` 02-history.md ` and ` 13-operational-data.json ` — "Early C19. Brick, ashlar fronted. 3 storeys, 5 bays, 4 windows and door, on the ground floor. 4-panelled door with semi-circular fanlight. Tripartite sash either side of the door, the rest are sashes with glazing bars. Hipped slate roof." Critically, also used for the **north-west wing only** qualification. *Accessed 3 August 2026. Retrieved via Firecrawl; the site returns HTTP 403 to direct automated requests.* #### S02 — South Oxford Local History: Pubs ` https://southoxfordhistory.org.uk/interesting-aspects-of-grandpont-and-south-oxford-s-history/pubs ` Local history society record. Used for: the wharf in use "since at least 1638"; Isaac King's boatyard and the **St Aldate's Yard** inventory (wharf house and warehouse, another warehouse, a dwelling house, two stables, several covered sheds, the wharf); "The wharf house and main warehouse … were built in 1827, when Folly Bridge was rebuilt"; "In 1858 the site was taken over by Salter's Steamers"; "In 1977 the warehouse was converted into a pub and the wharf became the pub's courtyard garden"; and the surviving winch. **This is the load-bearing source for the bundle's central argument** and the only one giving 1977 precisely. See the conflict ledger and ` 16-editor-notes.md ` — a second source for 1977 is the top open item. #### S03 — The Head of the River, official site ` https://www.headoftheriveroxford.co.uk/ ` Used for: address and postcode (Folly Bridge, St Aldate's, OX1 4LB); telephone and email; pub and kitchen opening hours as quoted; Fuller's ownership; **19 bedrooms across four room types** (Indulgence, Comfy, Cosy, Family) with breakfast included; dog-friendly policy; free wifi; step-free access; accessible toilets and baby-changing. *Accessed 3 August 2026.* **Note**: this page lists "Historic pub" among its amenities. That claim is **not** carried forward — see the conflict ledger. #### S04 — The Head of the River, history page ` https://www.headoftheriveroxford.co.uk/history ` Used for: the naming competition in the *Oxford Mail*; **2,700 entries**; the winner **Lewis Fisher** and his gallon of whisky; the explanation that the finishing line of the four-day regatta lies just east of the pub and that "Head of the River" refers to the boat finishing first; and the River Isis as the name for this stretch of the Thames. *Accessed 3 August 2026.* #### S05 — Salter's Steamers, official site ` https://www.salterssteamers.co.uk/ ` · ` https://salterssteamers.co.uk/punting-oxford ` Used for: the founding year **1858**; Folly Bridge as a departure location and the pier postcode **OX1 4LA**; punt hire prices (**£25** per hour Monday–Friday, **£30** Saturday–Sunday); **maximum five people** per punt; the **Easter to October** season, weather dependent; **self-drive only**, with no chauffeured option; FareHarbor booking and walk-up one-hour hires; photo ID required for the security deposit; and the punting route on the Thames/Isis towards Christ Church Meadow and Iffley. Salter's own punting page describes its location as "situated beside the historic Head of the River pub", which is the direct confirmation that the two sit together. *Accessed 3 August 2026.* #### S06 — Salter's Steamers, trips and schedules ` https://salterssteamers.co.uk/short-trips/ ` · ` https://salterssteamers.co.uk/directions-to-oxford/ ` Used for: the **Iffley Lock** service, roughly hourly 11:00–17:00, April to September; the **Abingdon** trip, about two hours each way, May to September; the 90-minute afternoon tea cruise and its 2026 public dates (**20 July – 27 August**); and the description of the departure point below the head office on Folly Bridge, nearest postcode OX1 4LA. *Accessed 3 August 2026. Dates are annual and explicitly flagged as volatile.* #### S07 — OpenStreetMap / Nominatim ` https://nominatim.openstreetmap.org/ ` Used for: the coordinates **51.74667, −1.25602**, returned for "The Head of the River, 1 Folly Bridge, OX1 4LB". Used as corroboration rather than as the primary authority: the Historic England listing's own National Grid Reference (SP 51455 05608) converts to the same point, so two independent sources agree. Recorded as ` production_status: verified ` in the operational data on that basis. *Accessed 3 August 2026.* ### Conflict ledger #### C1 — "Historic pub" - **S03** lists "Historic pub" among the pub's amenities. - **S02** dates the conversion of the warehouse to a pub to **1977**. **Not carried forward.** The building is early nineteenth century and Grade II listed; the business has been a pub since 1977. Both facts are true and the bundle states both, separately and explicitly. Collapsing them into "historic pub" is the single most common error in published material about this place, and correcting it is the page's editorial reason for existing. #### C2 — When did it become a pub? - **S04** (the pub's own history): the warehouse was "over a century later … converted into a pub" — no year. - **S02**: "In 1977 the warehouse was converted into a pub." **Used: 1977**, from S02. The two are consistent — 1827 plus 150 years is "over a century later" — but only S02 is specific. Flagged in ` 16-editor-notes.md ` as resting on a single source, with the city planning record for the change of use proposed as corroboration at the next revision. #### C3 — Which postcode? - **S03**: the pub is **OX1 4LB**. - **S05/S06**: Salter's pier and the punt station are **OX1 4LA**. **Not a contradiction but a genuine trap.** Both are correct and they are metres apart across the bridge approach. Navigation apps route to whichever is given. The bundle states both and says which is which, in ` 03-visitor-guide.md `, ` 05-hidden-details.md ` and the operational data's ` adjacent_postcode_note `. #### C4 — Electoral ward - An aggregator listing site records the Grade II entry under "Holywell Ward". - **S01**, the statutory source, gives the address as **St Aldate's Street** and the parish as Non Civil Parish, with National Grid Reference SP 51455 05608 — which is at Folly Bridge, nowhere near Holywell. **Used: S01.** The ward attribution is an aggregator data artefact and is not repeated anywhere in this bundle. Recorded here so a future editor who encounters it knows it was seen and rejected. ### Claims deliberately not made Recorded so a future editor knows these were considered and rejected, not overlooked. - **That the pub is old.** It is not. See C1. - **That Salter's and the pub are one business.** They share an origin and a bridge. Salter's runs the boats; Fuller's runs the pub. - **That the whole building is listed.** The listing covers the north-west wing only (S01). - **A precise date for the wharf.** S02 gives "at least 1638", and the bundle repeats the qualifier rather than presenting 1638 as a foundation date. - **Any claim that this is a hidden gem.** It is one of the busiest pubs in Oxford on a summer afternoon. - **Accessible bedrooms, lift provision, hearing-loop coverage, step-free boat boarding** — all recorded as unverified rather than assumed either way. - **Opening hours for the punt station.** S05 gives the season and the prices but not daily opening times, so none are stated. Reviewed on **3 August 2026** Opening hours, prices, programmes and access arrangements can change. Confirm critical details with the venue. Before you visit ### Check hours, tickets and access. Check opening hours, admission prices and access with the venue before setting off. Updated 3 August 2026 By [Above Guide Editorial Team]() [Report a correction]() Continue exploring ### Build this into your Oxford. [Visit the official site]()[All things to do]() Continue exploring / Oxford ### What will you *do next?* Compare the practical essentials first, then open the experiences that earn a place in your plans. 01 Culture & history [01 Culture & history **Bate Collection of Musical Instruments** Explore experience]() [02 Culture & history **Bodleian Library guided tour** Explore experience]() [03 Culture & history **Christ Church** Explore experience]() [04 Culture & history **Christ Church Cathedral** Explore experience]() [05 Culture & history **History of Science Museum** Explore experience]() [06 Culture & history **Oxford Castle** Explore experience]() [07 Culture & history **Oxford University Museum of Natural History** Explore experience]() [08 Culture & history **Pitt Rivers Museum** Explore experience]() [09 Culture & history **Sheldonian Theatre** Explore experience]() [10 Culture & history **Stephen A. Schwarzman Centre for the Humanities** Explore experience]() [11 Culture & history **The Ashmolean Museum** Explore experience]() [12 Culture & history **The Radcliffe Camera** Explore experience]() [13 Culture & history **The Weston Library** Explore experience]() [14 Culture & history **University Church of St Mary the Virgin** Explore experience]() 02 Food & drink [15 Food & drink **Le Manoir aux Quat’Saisons** Explore experience]() [16 Food & drink **Oxford Covered Market** Explore experience]() [17 Food & drink **The Bear Inn** Explore experience]() [18 Food & drink **The Chequers** Explore experience]() [19 Food & drink **The Eagle and Child** Explore experience]() [20 Food & drink **The King’s Arms** Explore experience]() [21 Food & drink **The Lamb & Flag** Explore experience]() [22 Food & drink **The Perch** Explore experience]() [23 Food & drink **The Trout Inn** Explore experience]() [24 Food & drink **The Turf Tavern** Explore experience]() [25 Food & drink **The White Horse** Explore experience]() [26 Food & drink **Westgate Oxford** Explore experience]() 03 Walks & views [27 Walks & views **The Bridge of Sighs** Explore experience]() 04 Parks & meadows [28 Parks & meadows **Christ Church Meadow** Explore experience]() [29 Parks & meadows **Oxford Botanic Garden** Explore experience]() [30 Parks & meadows **Port Meadow** Explore experience]() [31 Parks & meadows **University Parks** Explore experience]() 05 On the water [32 On the water **Punt the Cherwell** Explore experience]() [33 On the water **Salter's Steamers** Explore experience]() 06 Go deeper [43 Colleges All the colleges **Every Oxford college** Open the college guide]()[Food & drink / a story **The nine oldest pubs** Walk the timeline]()[Plan / Itinerary builder **Build your Oxford day** Start planning]() ## Structured page data ```json { "tenant": "oxford", "destination": { "slug": "oxford", "name": "Oxford" }, "scope": "Public editorial content and published planning templates only; no visitor accounts, saved itineraries, bookings or live availability.", "data": {}, "missingData": [], "structuredData": [ { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "Organization", "@id": "https://above.guide/#organization", "name": "Above Guide", "alternateName": "above.guide", "url": "https://above.guide", "description": "Independent publisher of contextual destination guides, practical visitor information and immersive city experiences.", "logo": { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://above.guide/oxford/favicon.svg", "contentUrl": "https://above.guide/oxford/favicon.svg", "caption": "Above Guide" }, "email": "hello@above.guide", "contactPoint": { "@type": "ContactPoint", "contactType": "Editorial corrections", "email": "hello@above.guide", "url": "https://above.guide/oxford/corrections", "availableLanguage": "English" }, "publishingPrinciples": "https://above.guide/oxford/editorial-policy", "ethicsPolicy": "https://above.guide/oxford/editorial-policy", "correctionsPolicy": "https://above.guide/oxford/corrections", "subjectOf": { "@id": "https://above.guide/oxford/about/#webpage" }, "areaServed": { "@type": "City", "name": "Oxford" }, "knowsAbout": [ "Oxford travel", "Oxford visitor planning", "Oxford colleges", "Oxford neighbourhoods" ] }, { "@type": "WebSite", "@id": "https://above.guide/oxford/#website", "name": "Above Guide Oxford", "url": "https://above.guide/oxford", "inLanguage": "en-GB", "publisher": { "@id": "https://above.guide/#organization" }, "about": { "@id": "https://above.guide/oxford/#destination" }, "publishingPrinciples": "https://above.guide/oxford/editorial-policy" }, { "@type": "Organization", "@id": "https://above.guide/oxford/about#editorial-team", "name": "Above Guide Editorial Team", "url": "https://above.guide/oxford/about#editorial-team", "description": "The editorial team responsible for researching, writing and reviewing Above Guide Oxford.", "parentOrganization": { "@id": "https://above.guide/#organization" }, "publishingPrinciples": "https://above.guide/oxford/editorial-policy" }, { "@type": "WebPage", "@id": "https://above.guide/oxford/things-to-do/head-of-the-river/#webpage", "url": "https://above.guide/oxford/things-to-do/head-of-the-river", "name": "Head of the River, Oxford: Visitor Guide | Above Guide", "description": "The riverside pub at Folly Bridge, in an 1827 warehouse on a wharf that has worked since 1638. 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Looking between the old crane, warehouse and boats gives you a glimpse of commercial Oxford that the college streets rarely reveal." } }, { "@type": "Question", "name": "What is a good walk to combine with it?", "acceptedAnswer": { "@type": "Answer", "text": "Combine the pub with Christ Church Meadow for a route that links college views with Oxford’s river landscape. Alternatively, make it a stop around a boat trip from Folly Bridge. Both combinations give the location a purpose beyond travelling across town just for a meal." } }, { "@type": "Question", "name": "Is the Head of the River a historic pub?", "acceptedAnswer": { "@type": "Answer", "text": "The building is — an 1827 warehouse, Grade II listed. The pub is not: the warehouse was converted in 1977. The pub's own website lists 'Historic pub' among its amenities, which is true of the walls and not of the business." } }, { "@type": "Question", "name": "What was the building before it was a pub?", "acceptedAnswer": { "@type": "Answer", "text": "A warehouse on a working wharf. The site was Isaac King's boatyard, St Aldate's Yard, and from 1858 it belonged to Salter's Steamers." } }, { "@type": "Question", "name": "Why is it called the Head of the River?", "acceptedAnswer": { "@type": "Answer", "text": "'Head of the River' is the rowing term for the crew finishing first in Oxford's Summer Eights bumps races, and the finishing line is just east of the pub. The name was chosen by a competition in the Oxford Mail — 2,700 entries, won by Lewis Fisher, who received a gallon of whisky." } }, { "@type": "Question", "name": "Can you hire a punt there?", "acceptedAnswer": { "@type": "Answer", "text": "Yes. Salter's hires punts from the bank beside the pub, OX1 4LA — £25 an hour Monday to Friday, £30 at weekends, maximum five people, Easter to October. Hire is self-drive only; photo ID is required for the deposit." } }, { "@type": "Question", "name": "Which river do the punts go on?", "acceptedAnswer": { "@type": "Answer", "text": "The Isis — the name the Thames takes through Oxford — downstream past Christ Church Meadow towards Iffley. This is not Cherwell punting, which is at Magdalen Bridge and the Cherwell Boathouse on the other side of the city." } }, { "@type": "Question", "name": "What boat trips leave from Folly Bridge?", "acceptedAnswer": { "@type": "Answer", "text": "Salter's runs a short service to Iffley Lock, roughly hourly from 11:00 to 17:00 between April and September, and a longer trip to Abingdon of about two hours each way from May to September." } }, { "@type": "Question", "name": "What are the opening hours?", "acceptedAnswer": { "@type": "Answer", "text": "Pub: Monday–Friday 07:00–23:00, Saturday 08:00–23:00, Sunday 08:00–22:00. The kitchen closes two hours earlier each day." } }, { "@type": "Question", "name": "Does it have rooms?", "acceptedAnswer": { "@type": "Answer", "text": "Yes — 19 bedrooms across four types, with breakfast included. Whether any is step-free or adapted is not stated; telephone 01865 721600 before booking if that matters." } }, { "@type": "Question", "name": "Is it dog friendly?", "acceptedAnswer": { "@type": "Answer", "text": "Yes, and the terrace makes it one of the more comfortable central Oxford pubs to bring a dog to." } }, { "@type": "Question", "name": "When is it quietest?", "acceptedAnswer": { "@type": "Answer", "text": "Weekday mornings, and winter generally. It is busiest on warm weekend afternoons and during Eights Week in late May." } } ] } ] } ] } ``` ## Related machine-readable resources - [Tenant index](https://above.guide/oxford/llms.txt) - [Complete tenant bundle](https://above.guide/oxford/llms-full.txt) - [Manifest](https://above.guide/oxford/ai/manifest.json)