We'll be in Oxford Sept 23 & 24. All the official Bodleian Library tours are sold out.
Going inside the library was my main reason for visiting Oxford. I foolishly assumed that visitors could enter, presumably with a fee of course. I can't find any third-party tours that go in. So from what I'm seeing there's no way for visitors to go inside the library except for their official tours.
Is that correct?
You can only get into the ground floor of the Weston Library if not on a tour (or possessor of a readers' card). This is where the free exhibitions are as well as the tour office. There can be extra on the day tours subject to availability.
Admittedly a year and a half ago, but when I went there were some tickets saved up for sales onsite. I was fortunate to get the last one. So it might pay to go early in the day and see if any are still available.
You can only get into the ground floor of the Weston Library if not on a tour (or possessor of a readers' card). This is where the free exhibitions are as well as the tour office. There can be extra on the day tours subject to availability.
Thank you for the tip. I just checked and there are at least two free events that I'm reasonably interested in, especially considering that it's my only opportunity to get inside. They are in the Treasury and in Blackwell Hall.
Both events say "Free, no ticket required". Does that mean that there are no limits on attendees, or might they still fill up?
Admittedly a year and a half ago, but when I went there were some tickets saved up for sales onsite. I was fortunate to get the last one. So it might pay to go early in the day and see if any are still available.
Good suggestion, thanks. There are (fully booked) tours scheduled both days we're there. Our hotel is a 15 minute walk away so we can check easily enough.
Exhibitions are generally free to walk round with no booking as are most lectures (some might be Friends only).
Here's the after trip follow-up about the Bodleian tour:
Don't put any faith in the Bodleian's online ticket booking. They generally don't post all (or even any) available tickets online.
Your best bet is to go to the desk in the Wesleyan first thing -- I think they open at 9am. You can often get tickets for that day. We arrived at 10:30 and they were sold out, but on a whim checked back at lunchtime and someone had canceled, so we got into the 30 minute tour.
The Wesleyan exhibits were interesting but there's little of interest to the facility itself. It's relatively new and not really involved in the Bodleian's book storage (at least not publicly). The café was decent.
