The Oxford Bar
Building in Edinburgh, Scotland
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Oxford Bar is a public house situated on Young Street, in the New Town of Edinburgh, Scotland. The pub is notable for having been featured in Sir Ian Rankin's Inspector Rebus series of novels and its adaptations, in which it is protagonist John Rebus' favourite pub. It is a Category B listed building.[1][2]
| The Oxford Bar | |
|---|---|
| |
 Interactive map of the The Oxford Bar area | |
| General information | |
| Location | Edinburgh, Scotland |
| Coordinates | 55°57′10.61″N 03°12′19.82″W |
| Opened | 1811 |
| Website | |
| oxfordbar.co.uk | |
Listed Building – Category B | |
| Official name | 8 and 8A Young Street, the Oxford Bar, and 2 Young Street Lane South[1] |
| Designated | 3 March 1966[1] |
| Reference no. | LB40820[1] |
History
The Oxford Bar apparently became a public house in 1811, although it was a confectioner's shop in 1843.[1] It was disponed on 30 October 1893 to Andrew Wilson, wines and spirits merchant, and thereafter remained a public bar.
The Oxford Bar retains its original compartmentalised form, which many other local bars have lost. Originally consisting of a central corridor with rooms to right and left, the corridor has been opened up to the left with an archway into the small stand-up bar but the original form is still clear.[1]
Patrons
Several Scottish writers and artists are known to have been patrons of the Oxford Bar, including Sydney Goodsir Smith, Willie Ross and Sir Ian Rankin. The pub was first immortalised in Smith's Carotid Cornucopius; Rankin later chose it as Rebus' pub as many police officers used to drink there.[3]. In Dirty Work: Ian Rankin and John Rebus Book-By-Book, Ray Dexter and Nadine Carr note that The Oxford Bar would be an improbable local for Rebus due to its geographical location.[4][self-published source]
Other visitors to the bar have included actor Sir Sean Connery and author Colin Dexter.[5] Sir Michael Palin visited in 1978 and mentions being impressed by it in his diary, The Python Years.
Quintin Jardine's 2009 Bob Skinner novel, Fatal Last Words, also mentions The Oxford Bar considerably, again due to the connection with the local police force drinking there. There are a few other nods to Rankin too.
In August 2024, television presenter Lorraine Kelly's visit made local headlines.[6][7]