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Picture source: Movement80

The Gloucester Arms was situated on Friars Entry. This pub closed in 2008.

Now reopened as The White Rabbit.

Admin (January 2013)

My first bar job was in the Gloucester Arms in 1994. It was an era where the regulars defined the pub and The Gloucester Arms had an incredible group of regulars who you’d see in there at least 3 times a week. Most people worked and would be in there for a few after work or out for the night on Fridays and Saturdays. There was a guy who would come in every day when we opened and drink pints of Tetleys till around 4pm. That was about £1.50 in those days (can’t believe I’m using those words) and I guess he was retired, just drinking up his pension. He seemed a perfectly happy chap and would chat to people as and when. Never seemed drunk either. The Gloc had a fantastic jukebox and regulars used to whack on tracks that the bar staff loved. I used to spend plenty on the jukebox myself and the bar staff could always use the ‘skip’ button if someone put something on that was a bit off! Everyone smoked then. I remember a guy started working there and he actually didn’t smoke when he started but was smoking by the time he left. It was a dark pub and was right behind the theatre so in the beer garden you could feel a lot of history - cobbles and theatre companies relocating from the stage door to the pub in one easy move. For me as an 18 year old, it was an amazing time. The day time regulars tested you when you first started, make sure you could handle a joke, once you were accepted, it was like family. There was always something to talk about, joke about, someone else to get to know. It was also the beginning of seeing where pubs would go. In 1996, the pub community successfully fought an attempt by the brewery to change The Gloucester Arms into a Scruffy Murphys. That was no mean feat because all over Oxford, the pubs were being stripped of their character and the vibe that was made by the community who drank in them. The Gloc avoided this fate for longer than any pub in the city. And considering it was a drinkers pub (unless you consider a microwaved pasty dinner), there was never any aggro, never any punch up whilst I was there. Just easy-going, good spirited people.

Madeleine Vose (May 2020)

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Name Dates Comments Steve 1980s/1990s Customer, only place i ever hung out as a teenager!!!loved it, the whole pub new each other even though we had different groups of friends, never a bad night, in fact quite the opposite, virtually lived there for about five years so many life affirming moments that stay with me even now.