A private club, so be prepared to find a member to gain entry…read more The Union is an icon in British culture. A center of debate and public discourse, you should really try to catch a debate if you are in Oxford during term. The member's bar is an excellent perk and serves a sparse, but nice lunch during weekdays. I'm writing this review from the free wireless service, which is another nice feature (though it works better from the libraries than the bar.) Snooker tables upstairs add a nice bonus to the typical bar scene in Oxford. The Union has become my haven when I am in the busy streets of downtown Oxford. The leather seats in the bar and the relatively quiet atmosphere during the day make it a great place to relax and get work done, or bring others for a discussion or meeting. You will find yourself surrounded mostly by undergraduates, followed by a healthy mix of post-grads and faculty. The debates are similar demographics, and tend to feature diametrically opposed parties. These are not always the best debates as they often pitch opposing ideologies and simply bash assumptions against each other rather than focus on the logical systems each side is using. The student debates before the formal debates tend to hold more fine points of discussion and a bit of humor. Both are worth going to, however, and some are more compelling than others. All in all, I think the Oxford Union deserves its iconic status, and if you can, you really should make an effort to experience it. Members can bring guests for a £3 entry fee. If you are affiliated with the university, and eligible for membership, you can only be a guest 3 times before you are asked to buy your own membership.

The world-famous Oxford Union is rightly proud of its library. Of course, Oxford is full of…read morelibraries crammed with rare copies, beautiful interiors and terrifyingly intelligent academics. This fits the mould, but is a healthy mixtures of generally artsy books. In keeping with the general theme of the union, it's well-loved by law and politics students, although there's something for most subjects. It's one of the biggest libraries where you can borrow books (as opposed to sit in there and read them) in Oxford, but its use is limited to members of the Union, for which it is necessary to pay over £100. There's also a decent collection of fiction, which can be a bit lacking in college libraries. It's got books written in the past few years. The travel guides are particularly useful, although quickly outdated, as are the magazines and newspapers. They're generally quite serious magazines (although FHM has been known to make an appearancE) - more the Economist and New Scientist than Heat or Hello, and much cheaper than buying one which you'll read once. If you're not a member of the Union or the Union Society, you can still visit the library for £1.50 and it's well worth doing so to see the Pre-Raphaelite murals (1857-9) painted by Rossetti, Edward Burne-Jones and William Morris. They're all quite dramatic and mostly related to the legends of King Arthur. Don't forget to look up at the ceiling!