The Library,Cowley Road

The Library is an independent pub on Cowley Road in Cowley, East Oxford, opened in 2011. It occupies a former shopfront and trades as one of the street's few non-chain drinking spots, with a rotating list of craft beers, real ales and an extensive whisky selection alongside a handful of not-so-common spirits. The kitchen serves a compact, frequently changing food menu spanning several cuisines rather than sticking to standard pub fare. Downstairs, a basement room doubles as a small venue for live music, comedy nights and DJ sets, giving the pub a role beyond serving drinks. It draws a mixed crowd from the surrounding student houses and long-term East Oxford residents, and has kept its single-site, independently run format since opening rather than expanding to other addresses.