About
The Story Museum in central Oxford is Britain's first museum dedicated entirely to story and storytelling — a unique cultural institution that explores the power, history and universality of narrative across all its forms, from ancient oral traditions to contemporary children's literature, from Shakespeare to Philip Pullman.
The museum opened in its permanent home in 2023, occupying a beautifully restored complex of Georgian and Victorian buildings on Pemberton Street, a short walk from the Bodleian Library and the heart of the university city. The setting is deliberately significant: Oxford is one of the great literary cities of the world, a place whose streets, quadrangles, libraries and college gardens have inspired an extraordinary roll-call of storytellers. Lewis Carroll wrote Alice in Wonderland for the real Alice Liddell, daughter of the Dean of Christ Church. C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien walked together in the University Parks debating myth and sub-creation. Philip Pullman set His Dark Materials largely in an Oxford whose geography is still entirely recognisable. Iris Murdoch, Evelyn Waugh, Graham Greene, Philip Larkin — the literary associations of Oxford could fill a library in their own right, and The Story Museum draws on this heritage while extending its reach far beyond it.
The museum's galleries are designed to be experiential and immersive rather than purely contemplative: visitors are encouraged to enter stories, inhabit characters and feel the physical texture of narrative. Interactive installations include a Wardrobe of Stories that visitors can step into, a vast illustrated cave exploring the origins of human storytelling, recreated worlds from famous narratives, and a 1001 Nights gallery evoking the frame narrative that encompasses thousands of tales. Alongside the children-focussed interactive spaces, the museum offers intellectually rich displays on the history of storytelling, book illustration, oral tradition and the relationship between story and identity.
Run as an independent charity, The Story Museum is committed to access and inclusion — bringing the power of story to children and communities who might not otherwise encounter it — through an extensive programme of events, workshops, school visits and outreach. It is one of Oxford's most distinctive and welcoming cultural destinations for families.
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Plan Your Visit
⏱️ Recommended Visit Duration
💡 Visitor Tips
- Oxford city centre parking is limited and expensive — use the park-and-ride services from the A40 or A34 corridors, or arrive by train (20-minute walk from Oxford station or 5 minutes by bus).
- The Story Lab runs drop-in creative activities throughout opening hours — no pre-booking needed for drop-in, but check the website for structured workshop timings.
- Allow at least 2 hours; families with children who want to linger in the interactive installations often stay for 3 hours or more.
- The museum shop is one of the best children's bookshops in Oxford — allow time to browse, particularly if travelling with young readers.
- Combine with the Ashmolean Museum (15 minutes' walk, free entry) for a full Oxford cultural day without overlapping themes.
- Pick up the Oxford literary walking map at the desk to extend your visit into the city's own story landscape after the museum.
- School holiday periods see the museum at its busiest — book tickets online in advance to guarantee entry and avoid queuing.
- The museum café courtyard is a quiet oasis in the heart of the city — a good spot for lunch before or after exploring the galleries.
Highlights
Alice and Lewis Carroll — Oxford's Greatest Story
No museum in the city of Oxford is better placed than The Story Museum to tell the story of Alice in Wonderland. Lewis Carroll was Charles Dodgson, mathematics lecturer at Christ Church, who invented Alice's adventures for the real Alice Liddell during a boat trip in 1862. The museum's Alice installation celebrates this most Oxford of stories with immersive installations, original illustrations by John Tenniel and later artists, and an exploration of how a story told to a child on an afternoon river outing became one of the most translated and adapted books in the English language.
The Wardrobe — Stepping Into Story
One of the museum's most beloved installations takes its name and form from C. S. Lewis's The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe — itself a story with deep Oxford roots, written by a man who walked these streets daily.
Visitors literally step through a wardrobe into an immersive story environment, experiencing the physical sensation of crossing a narrative threshold.
The installation is designed to be experienced by children and adults alike, and the moment of stepping through — regardless of age — tends to produce a genuine frisson of anticipation that connects viscerally to Lewis's original description of Lucy's first steps into Narnia.
Philip Pullman and His Dark Materials
Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy is set largely in an Oxford whose geography — the Bodleian Library, Jordan College, the Covered Market — is precisely that of the real city, overlaid with the machinery of alternative worlds. The museum's Pullman display explores the trilogy's imaginative architecture, its relationship to Oxford's actual landscape, and Pullman's debt to Milton's Paradise Lost in constructing his narrative.
With the support of the author, the museum presents material exploring how Lyra Belacqua's Oxford is and is not the same city as the one visitors walk through to reach the museum's door.
The 1001 Nights — The Great Frame Narrative
The museum's 1001 Nights gallery explores the most celebrated storytelling structure in world literature — the frame narrative in which Scheherazade tells stories to survive, night after night, across a thousand and one evenings.
The gallery uses immersive design, projected imagery and sound to evoke the atmosphere of the tales while exploring the literary and historical significance of the collection: its origins across Persian, Arabic and Indian traditions, its routes into European literature, and its profound influence on narrative structure from Chaucer to modern thriller writers.
The gallery celebrates world storytelling heritage alongside the museum's Oxford literary focus.
Collections
The Story Museum's collection reflects its unique remit as a museum of storytelling in all its forms. Holdings include first editions and rare editions of key works in children's and adult literature, original manuscript materials, author correspondence and archive material, original artwork and preparatory sketches by book illustrators spanning the Victorian era to the present, performance recordings, film and audio documents of oral storytelling traditions, and an extensive digital archive of storytelling-related material.
The museum has a particular strength in Oxford-connected literary figures, with significant holdings related to Lewis Carroll, C.
S. Lewis, J. R.
R. Tolkien, Philip Pullman and other writers associated with the university and city. The collection continues to grow through donation, commission and acquisition, with contemporary illustrators and authors regularly contributing original works.
Once Upon a Time — The Power of Story
Core permanent exhibition exploring the nature, history and universality of human storytelling from prehistoric cave art to contemporary children's literature
Oxford Stories — The Literary City
Gallery celebrating Oxford's extraordinary contribution to world literature and the writers who found their stories in its streets, colleges and landscape
Current Exhibitions
No current exhibitions. Please check the museum website for updates.
Nearby Museums (5 within 6 miles)
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Museum of the History of Science, University of Oxford
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