St Stephen's House, Oxford

Summary

• 19th century buildings
• Breakfast included
• Car parking for a charge
• No smoking

Facilities

• Gardens
• Self-catering facilities

Drinking and dining

• Restaurant
• Self-catering facilities
• Continental breakfast (included)
• English breakfast (included)

Nearby recreations

• Recommended walks
• Pub (walking distance)
• Museums (walking distance)
• Gardens
• Recommended restaurants (walking distance)
• Theatre (walking distance)

We are a Theological College and a Permanent Private Hall of the University of Oxford, situated close to Magdalen Bridge in a quiet street running between the famous Cowley Road and Iffley Road.  The College is a former monastery, with the warm, relaxed and peaceful atmosphere of a country house with modern facilities. There are only 50 bedrooms so you will never feel overwhelmed, but unlike other Oxford Colleges, please note that we do not have a Porters Lodge or a Reception, so you will be responsible for accessing the College yourself.  Do also note that we do not have disabled access, and entrance to the College is by steep concrete steps.

Once the College has been notified of your booking, you will be sent an email from St Stephen's House which will confirm your booking and provide you with all the access information you need. This is a separate email sent to you at a later date, and it is not the same as the one you automatically receive from University Rooms confirming your booking/payment.  It is extremely important that you read the email you receive from St Stephen's House and bring it with you.

You will be staying in student accommodation, and as such, the bedrooms are not to hotel standards and do not have televisions or a telephone. However, all the bedrooms are clean, tidy and comfortable, with a refreshment tray, towels and toiletries (towels are changed once a week).  Your room will have shared unisex bathroom facilities unless you have selected an en-suite room. Please be aware when booking a room that the College operates a silence policy during the night hours between 11pm and 8.30am weekdays to allow students and guests to study and sleep undisturbed, but do please be aware that Church bells are rung early in the morning. Smoking is not permitted anywhere in the College.

Painting and maintenance work is currently taking place but we hope that this does not cause any inconvenience to you.

History to the present day

St Stephen's House is sited in the former monastery of The Cowley Fathers founded by Fr Meaux Benson. The Grade II 19th century building is linked by cloisters to a very fine, Grade 1 listed church designed by Bodley.

Dining and drinking

Breakfast is either a cooked or a continental-style breakfast in the Dining Room.  Your confirmation email will provide breakfast timings (which differ depending on vacation or term-time), but the continental breakfast will be available for you to help yoursef to from early morning until 9:30am. Please note that a continental breakfast is provided on a Friday and a Saturday during term-time.

Dinner may be bookable, but only during university term time (and this must be booked at least 24 hours in advance - please state your interest on the booking form). There is also a large, well-equipped kitchen which can be used to prepare your own snacks and meals.

Grounds and gardens

Set in private gated grounds, there is a large lawn where children can play and another peaceful cloister garden with chairs and tables where you can relax in the sun.

Other facilities

Wi-Fi: If you need internet access, most rooms have wireless access (please ask for the code which will be put with your bedroom key) but we cannot guarantee that your room will pick up the wi-fi.   

Telephones: We have one pay telephone on the ground floor, but this does not accept cash, and you will need to bring a telephone card with you to use this.

Car Parking:  We have a small car park with very limited space, which must be booked in advance by requesting this on "Additional Information" section.  Do please note that we cannot guarantee car parking will be available to you when your make your booking.  If space is not available, you will be notified of this in your confirmation email from the College.  In addition, access to the car park is by a key code, and this will be emailed to you in advance of your stay.

The rate is £5.00 per day, per car, and is payable by cash or cheque only, payable to "St Stephen's House".  The car park is only available to you whilst you are a checked-in guest at St Stephen's House, i.e. between 2:30pm check-in and 10:30am check-out. 

Arrival information and how to find us

Address: St Stephen's House, 16 Marston Street, Oxford, OX4 1JX.

Check In: From 2:30pm only. We kindly ask that you do not arrive before check in, as Houskeeping will be preparing the bedrooms.

Check Out: By 10.30am at the latest. Check-out of room also includes check-out of car park.

Once the College has been notified of your booking, your arrival instructions will be sent to you by email before you arrival date. It is very important that you read and bring this information with you, as you will be responsible for accessing the College yourself, and collecting your room key.  There is no Reception, so on arrival at check-in time (2:30pm), you may collect your room key and go directly to your room.

If you need to cancel your booking, please ensure you contact University Rooms in the first instance, who will then in turn notify the College.

The college straddles Cowley Road and Iffley Road, 4 streets up from The Plain (roundabout by Magdalen Bridge).  It is less than 5 minutes walk from the airport  and London bus stop at St Clement's and a short bus ride to Cowley Road from the rail station.

More photos of St Stephen's House, Oxford

En-suite single bedroom	Cloisters	King building twin bedroom	En-suite single bedroom
std King twin/double bedroom	dining room evening	en-suite shower room	Edward King suite, bedroom
Small Twin Benson bedroom	Edward King suite, sitting room	en-suite shower room	Common Room bay window
dining room daytime	The Chapel	Benson building from Marston St	Bishop's room looking thro to bathroom
library	view of church from cloisters	std grnd floor single bedroom	Moberly Gardens
King building from cloisters	rose garden	King en-suite double/twin room	Large Twin Benson bedroom
Large Twin Benson bedroom

Customer feedback

We guarantee that all our feedback is genuine and can only be submitted by people who have booked through our websites.

Ian Davies, February 2011: Room excellent, except there was no chair. We did not have breakfast, so please take no notice of that answer. Would certainly come back again.

william carlyon, February 2011: It suited us well. Convenient and reasonable for Oxford.

Elaine Ambler, December 2010: Oxford won our hearts, St Stephen's was our home away from home for our stay there. It was clean comfortable and cosy. The staff were friendly and helpful.

Nathalie BOSSON, December 2010: The place is very nice, warm (in both sense of the term), very very convenient, and quiet and peaceful (notice that I was there on vacation-term). I would recommend it warmly and will definitively stay there if I have to come back to Oxford.

Hilary Diamond, December 2010: Beautiful inside; we went for a short walk in the cloisters and loved it. Bus stop nearby that had a bus going pastg every minute, that could take you to Oxford City Centre. Very close to Lovely Botanical Gardens. Staff very friendly. Rooms warm and clean. Excellent shower.

Sara Fortunati, December 2010: The best accommodation I have ever stayed at! Very peaceful and quiet, with extremely kind staff.

Kurt Hollesen, November 2010: I really enjoyed my visit at St Stephen's. Excellent nice clean room. Wonderful breakfast where you were served by a friendly chef, lovely atmosphere and very quiet and peaceful surroundings. Hard to believe you are almost in the heart of Oxford. I will look forward to visit St Stephen's again.

David Holder, November 2010: We had a small twin room with shared facilities. The room was very clean and the beds comfortable. The bathrooms were close and clean. Breakfast was very good and the few people we met were friendly. It was good to be able to stay in the centre of Oxford. Excellent value for money.

Susan Joyner, November 2010: Great place to stay. Thank you

Rebecca Wells, November 2010: Had a very comfortable stay, thank you.

Sveinn Yngvi Egilsson, November 2010: We really enjoyed our stay and will certainly consider renting a university room again if we should return to Oxford in the future.

Dianne Rummery, October 2010: Met some very interesting people at breakfast which was a fine meal. Would have been useful to know that the bus for Heathrow and Gatwick stopped very close by to St. Stephens. Could be included in notes sent to guests.

Stefan Karpik, October 2010: Exceptionally quiet over the weekend. I will come again.

cheryl f lang, October 2010: A quiet and peaceful experience - would like to visit again

Lynne Ballew, October 2010: Excellent value and great facilities--only thing missing was a TV in the room! I will definitely book with you when I plan to be in Oxford again! thanks for everything!

Ms Kylie Suich, October 2010: It was slightly impersonal, as you don't meet anyone on arriving or leaving. But I can see how that is necessary for this type of accommodation. Breakfast was good - Soy Milk was provided, without having to arrange in advance, this is the only accomm in the UK that provided it. thanks, Kylie

Ulla Lorenz-Eibl, October 2010: Dear Sir or Madame, At first we were a bit sceptical of staying in a college, but it was really a pleasant stay. The room was spacious and clean. The beds were comfortable and the room service was good. We particularly liked the peacefull atmosphere. The only thing was the continental breakfast, which did not have much variation. If you don`t like English breakfast, there was not much choice left. I`m sure, we will chose college accommodation again.

neil johnson, October 2010: Great idea for place to stay - everyone there was very helpful. Elaborate security systems took a bit of figuring out, but I suspect they are necessary.

Sara Thorne, October 2010: Great to be able to park during the stay. Easy to organise and really useful to be able to stay during term time - it meant we were close at hand when my son, who has Asperger's Syndrome, started in Corpus Christi College. Beuatiful view over the cloisters too. Thank you!

Eugenia Keil, October 2010: It was a very nice experience. I felt like I'm a student again. My former school was a monestary as well, so I felt right at home. The place oozes knowledge. I would highly recommend it. Thank you! P.S. The instructions were very easy to follow which shouldn't be underestimated.

Nicola Ramsden, October 2010: We loved the Bishop's Room - the others in the single rooms found them rather small, but adequate for one night, and we all appreciated the cleanliness of the rooms. Residents of St Stephens were most friendly towards us. It was a huge advantage to be able to use the car park. We liked the peaceful atmosphere, and will certainly try to stay here again when next in Oxford.

Mr. & Mrs S Ince, October 2010: Comfortable bed and a good breakfast served by friendly chef

ms diane coxon, October 2010: The location was great, enjoyed "edgy" part of town, Cowley Road. Staff friendly and helpful - room a bit noisy at times as right opposite front door, where everyone had to enter. Minor gripe though, would stay again, and recommend it. About a 10-15 minute walk to central Oxford, but very enjoyable walk, and could easily get sidetracked onto other accessible beautiful riverside etc. walks. Will use University Rooms again, excellent idea for travellers out of semester time.

John Emmett, September 2010: My only problem was finding the way in from the car park to the main reception - I didn't find the instructions very easy to follow having walked round the cloisters twice! In the end, I had to walk out of the car park and round the block to the main entrance - but no serious problem. Overall clean and very convenient for town centre

Maria Elena Vollnhals, September 2010: Car park was crowded on the first day, but the room and breakfast was fine...