Oxford Westgate Library

Oxford's Westgate Library sits right in the heart of the city, and it's worth a proper look if you're passing through with a few hours to kill. It's a modern library - reopened after a major refurb - so you get decent facilities rather than dusty shelves and creaking floorboards. There's a reading room that's genuinely quiet, a decent non-fiction section if you're after local history books, and the usual computers and wifi if you need to catch up on emails.

The main draw is that it's free to browse, and the staff actually know what they're doing. You won't spend three hours here unless you're a serious reader, but an hour poking about is easily done. If you've got kids, there's a children's section that keeps them occupied well enough - not magical, but it does the job. The opening hours are decent too: you can pop in after a morning's sightseeing and it's open until 20:00 weekdays, which beats a lot of attractions that close at five.

If you're staying at one of the nearby parks - Cedar Hollow Oxford or Valley Farm Campsite are closest at three to three and a half miles - this makes sense as a rainy-day option. Not a reason to detour ten miles out of your way, but absolutely worth knowing about. It's the sort of place that rounds out a day in Oxford rather than defines it.