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Oxford and Blenheim Palace: Two Day Trips on One Line Out of London

By Jay Lynn ยท United Kingdom

The triumphal arch at Blenheim Palace seen from below, its tall gilded iron gates standing open with the clock tower of the Great Court framed in the opening
The gate into Blenheim. The tablet above it records what Queen Anne gave the first Duke, and how much of it was public money.

The useful thing about these two is that they are on the same railway line. Oxford and Blenheim Palace are both roughly an hour out of London Paddington and about eight miles from each other, which means you can treat them as one long day or as two separate ones depending on how much you like being rushed.

We would do them as two. But one day is genuinely possible, and if that is all you have, this is how it works.

Blenheim Palace

Blenheim is the only non-royal, non-episcopal house in England permitted to call itself a palace, which tells you most of what you need to know about its scale and its opinion of itself. It was a gift from a grateful nation to the first Duke of Marlborough after he won the Battle of Blenheim in 1704, it took decades to build, and it nearly bankrupted everyone involved.

Winston Churchill was born there in 1874. It has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1987.

Looking out between two tall stone columns of the palace portico, across the Great Court to the far wing with its carved pediment and a gilded finial against a blue sky

Inside, the room to see is the Long Library. It runs 183 feet, which makes it the second longest room in any private house in the country, and the far end of it is filled by an organ. Henry Willis built it in 1891 for the eighth Duke and his second Duchess at a cost of ten thousand pounds, and they had an inscription put on the front of it about leaving their voices to speak in these walls in years to come, when their own were still. It is a strange and rather moving thing to find at the end of a library.

Halfway down stands a marble Queen Anne, carved by Rysbrack. The first Duchess commissioned it years after Anne died, and the reason is the same reason the sum of money is carved over the front gate: the family wanted everyone who came after them to remember exactly who had paid for all this.

A marble statue of Queen Anne holding a sceptre, standing in front of tall glazed bookcases in the Long Library at Blenheim, under heavy carved white plasterwork

The rest of the house is worth the ticket too, and not in a way that blurs together: a chapel built around an enormous family monument, state rooms hung floor to ceiling with tapestries of the battles that paid for them, and a coronation robe in a glass case looking much heavier than you expect.

The organ at the end of the Long Library, a bank of tall silver pipes under gilded carving and a painted inscription panel held by cherubs
The chapel at Blenheim, with the marble Marlborough monument of standing figures rising against the wall under moulded plaster vaulting
A state room at Blenheim hung with large tapestries of mounted soldiers, a crystal chandelier overhead and a pale embroidered gown on a stand
A coronation robe of crimson velvet trimmed with white fur and heavy silver embroidery, displayed in a room hung with tapestries

The grounds are the point, or at least they are the part people underestimate. Capability Brown landscaped them in the 1760s and he dammed the river to make the lake, which is the single most effective thing anyone has ever done to a view in England. You can spend a whole day outside without going into the house at all.

Getting there: there is a direct train from Paddington to Hanborough, hourly, about an hour and ten minutes. From Hanborough it is a short bus or taxi ride to the palace. Alternatively go to Oxford and take the bus out, and there are combined rail and bus tickets that cover exactly this.

Tip

Buy palace admission online before you go rather than at the gate, and check what your ticket includes. The house, the gardens and the park are not always the same ticket, and the park alone is worth a visit.

Oxford

About an hour from Paddington, and the better of the two if you only want one and you like streets more than lawns.

The short version: the Radcliffe Camera for the view of it, the Bodleian and its Divinity School for the inside, Christ Church for Tom Quad and the hall that became Hogwarts, and the Covered Market, trading since 1774, for lunch when you have had enough of architecture. Then punting, if the weather is behaving.

We have written it up properly in our Oxford guide, including the booking trap that catches people out.

Watch out

Christ Church sells timed tickets and they go fast. They are released every Friday at 10am for the following week. Turning up on the day in summer and expecting to walk in is how people end up seeing it from the gate.

Doing both in one day

Possible, and tight. Take an early train, do Blenheim first while you have the energy for the grounds, then come back into Oxford in the afternoon for the colleges and an early dinner before the train home. You will see both and you will rush both.

The honest version is that Blenheim deserves a day on its own if the weather is good, because the park is enormous and walking it unhurried is the whole pleasure. Oxford deserves a day because the best thing about it is wandering without a list.

If you only have one day and you have to choose: Blenheim in good weather, Oxford in bad. The palace is mostly an outdoor experience and the city is mostly an indoor one.

Practical notes for both

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