Blue Boar Street is a narrow historic street running between St Aldate's to the west and the north of Alfred Street to the west, in central Oxford, England. It is located just north of Christ Church.
At the western end is the Museum of Oxford and the Town Hall to the north.
The Bear is a historic public house located on the north side of Blue Boar Street on the corner with Alfred Street. A unique feature is a large collection of short lengths of tie displayed on its walls and ceiling.
To the south is Christ Church, one of the largest Oxford colleges. Behind an old wall on Blue Boar Street are the modern 1960s buildings of the Blue Boar Quadrangle in the college, named after Blue Boar Street. In 2006, this was Grade II* listed.
The street was formerly known as Tresham('s) Lane. Blewebore Inn, once owned by King Henry III, was located here, hence the current name. The Blue Boar Inn was demolished in 1893 for the building of the Oxford Public Library, later the Museum of Oxford.
Famous quotes containing the words blue, boar and/or street:
“Rather than have it the principal thing in my son’s mind, I would gladly have him think that the sun went round the earth, and that the stars were so many spangles set in the bright blue firmament.”
—Thomas Arnold (1795–1842)
“Is a man too strong and fierce for society, and by temper and position a bad citizen,—a morose ruffian, with a dash of the pirate in him;Mnature sends him a troop of pretty sons and daughters, who are getting along in the dame’s classes at the village school, and love and fear for them smooths his grim scowl to courtesy. Thus she contrives to intenerate the granite and the feldspar, takes the boar out and puts the lamb in, and keeps her balance true.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“Down in the street there are ice-cream parlors to go to
And the pavement is a nice, bluish slate-gray. People laugh a lot.”
—John Ashbery (b. 1927)