Unlocked Oxford Castle

...I wouldn't want to deprive Unlocked of future customers either, but I'll need to explain a few things as I go. So, before doing the tour I'd suggest a quick stroll up the motte which is on the Castle Street side of the complex and is easily recognisable by it being a big grassy hill with trees on the top. A motte and bailey is a basic castle consisting of the man made hill (motte) and wooden or stone structure (bailey) on the top. Only the motte ...
...it's worth a quick spiral stroll to the top (£1 admission) to get a nice, solitary view across Oxford city. There is a better view to come in the main tour, which is why I'd suggest this little climb to whet your appetite. Once at the top you can see the gated passageway that lead from the jail house to the motte through which the 'death row' prisoners would be taken for a bit of mediaeval bungeeing (minus the elastic) when their time came, or ran ... more

I had a day to kill with my easily bored 4 year old son, so I had the idea of taking him to the newly opened Oxford Castle\Prison tourist attraction Unlocked. And it wasn't at all bad - both my idea and the attraction itself.

To start with, let's call it the prison from now on as, although called Oxford Castle, it was only ever used as a prison. So, the prison itself is within the newly opened Castle complex and actually comprises of a number of buildings either newly built or, recently renovated existing structures and most of those are now opened to the public for the first time. There is now an excellent selection of bars, cafes and restaurants in 2 or 3 open, piazza style areas that provide much needed relief from the crowded, fast food or niche eateries that pepper Oxford's main streets, side streets and Covered Market. On offer you have Carluccios (highly recommended - delivering authentic, wholesome, basic but high quality Italian staple dishes. The clam spaghetti was awesome); Tootsies for massive, high quality burgers; Pizza Express; Ha Ha; The Living Room; Prezzo; Krispy Kremes!!! etc etc. But this isn't a review on places to eat at the Oxford Castle\Prison, although I think they should have gone with a bread and gruel buffet themed cafe with tables and benches, waiters dressed as wardens and the continual threat of a random 'shivving' whilst waiting in line to be seated.

Aaanyway, back to Unlocked, in a minute. I won't send you to sleep with too much history and I wouldn't want to deprive Unlocked of future customers either, but I'll need to explain a few things as I go. So, before doing the tour I'd suggest a quick stroll up the motte which is on the Castle Street side of the complex and is easily recognisable by it being a big grassy hill with trees on the top. A motte and bailey is a basic castle consisting of the man made hill (motte) and wooden or stone structure (bailey) on the top. Only the motte is left now, but if there are few people around, it's worth a quick spiral stroll to the top (£1 admission) to get a nice, solitary view across Oxford city. There is a better view to come in the main tour, which is why I'd suggest this little climb to whet your appetite. Once at the top you can see the gated passageway that lead from the jail house to the motte through which the 'death row' prisoners would be taken for a bit of mediaeval bungeeing (minus the elastic) when their time came, or ran out, however you want to look at it. From the top you can also look down on the grassed bar terrace of the Prezzo bar\restaurant adjacent. This looks like loads of fun, a lawn on the roof, but is always closed whenever I've been, mostly on nice summer's days, so I'm not sure what conditions need to be present for them to open it up.

Toby loved running up the path around the hill, which is gravelly and with pretty steep sides, so I was constantly trying to steer him away all the time. Typically on the way down it was me tripping over my own size 11s that nearly somersaulted down the path trying to keep up with him, so I let him get on with it. Kids bounce well at that age anyway don't they?

It was a hot day so the air conditioning and cool clamminess of the prison shop and entrance to the tour and cells was a welcome relief. Price of admission was £6.95 for me and under 5s are free. As a supplement to the speaking guide who escorts you you are also given a PDA-sized media player with colour screen and headphones to hang around your neck. This, we are told, can be activated at different points around the tour to show a friendly e-guide who will impart further information and titbits (in a variety of languages) as you go through the different areas. Nifty. Not too bad so far, but I was expecting quite a bit for my money and so my Value For Money gauge was sub-consciously primed once the tour started. Tour guides are dressed as early 20th Century prison wardens, but our guide was, improbably, a mildly spoken, silver haired 65 year old woman, so I wasn't able keep Toby in line with threats of warden inflicted violence or pitch black lock ups in solitary.

We started the tour off outside the main entrance being told a brief history of the motte and bailey and the moat that was created using slave labour by diverting the course of the Thames some considerable distance. The building tour proper began as we then descended the steps into the crypt that had been recently opened up after 300 years of closure (we were some of the first in). The guide closed the door and Toby's face lit up like the (fake) candles illuminating the cool cavern - spooky. We were then led from there down another recently excavated passageway to a stair well, the first of three levels of cells in a small wing off the main prison. The main jailhouse itself (think of Porridge's Slade Prison) has been made into a mad, themed hotel. The atrium\main reception of the hotel is ringed with the original cast iron catwalks that the wardens used to patrol and you actually sleep in the cells, which are luxuriously furnished with massive beds and plasma TVs. Only thing is you have to shit in a bucket and there's a chance you'll get bummed in the shower by Mr Big who's in with the wardens.

The old cells in this wing are bare, cold and gloomy, replete with peeling paint and was that the faint odour of despair I smelled, or was it just the old lady? The information boards were a bit mundane and with a little one to consider I was looking for more "fun" prison attractions - nice paradox huh? "Hey look Toby, a cat-o-nine-tails. What do they do? Here <swish> Aaaah!!" They did have a treadmill simulator which you have to stand in and tread against a weight in order to increment a digital clock. I managed 100 and then read the blurb that advised that I only needed to complete another 69,900 to finish my quota for the day! There was another similar machine with a handle to crank and a fun mugshot digital camera setup that took photos and posted them into a digital mug shot book with real criminals. Kids love this sort of thing! We then had a look inside a padded cell, tried on some prison clothes and headed down a couple of levels to a holding area with a nifty "touch and move" screen of panoramic Oxford. We had another little bit of history, blah blah civil war, blah blah something about a lady in white, blah blah climb the tower. Yes, this is more like it. A big old tower to climb and my Value For Money meter clicked over into the black. The French lady that was with us was a bit concerned about the climb, but the guide, who spoke fluent French, advised her that there were three places to rest on the way up. Toby was off like a shot and we got up the 300+ steps in under 2 minutes. At the top of the tower is another raised dais so you can actually look over the battlements around Oxford at the dreaming spires from a superb vantage point - probably higher than Carfax, the other tower in the city centre. Coming down was a bit of a mare, as it always is with those type of tight spiral staircases, but the exit from the tour through the authentic old iron gate gave me a good final photo of the tour.

If you are a large family with kids it might not be such a jam packed event at £7 a pop for adults, but for us we had a good time out of the 30+ degrees Centigrade sunshine with some good activities and the chance to step inside the old prison and, more importantly, to step back out! 

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