Pitt Rivers Museum

Very children friendly we love this place xxx

Absolutely marvellous! Tip for parents with buggies, there is a buggy route in but it's not well signed and you have to follow the arrows in the carpet to the lift. The staff are great at pointing you in the right direction though.

I also recommend the park and ride service - it's drivers are v helpful at pointing you in the right direction for Pitt Rivers - ideal if you are a tourist.

We've been many times and it's amazing that the entry is free and there is so much to see. We will be back again soon.

A gem hidden behind the Oxford University Museum of Natural Museum. A museum of a museum, as collected by General Pitt-Rivers on his travels. Objects are categorized by use rather than location. Find the shrunken heads and learn the different between a "real" one and a "fake" one (still an actual head, but done for Victorian tourists).

Gaze at dinosaur fossils and Alice in Wonderland's dodo at the Oxford University Museum of Natural History, then investigate the world-famous collection of ethnography and world archaeology at the Pitt Rivers Museum. Enjoy a blast of fresh air afterwards whilst strolling around the adjacent University Parks - a great family day out, according to our Oxford team.

Its funny how everyone mentions the shrunken heads - what does that say about us all? But they are kind of cool in a macabre way and not to be missed.

Hard to add much to the great reviews already posted. But I definitely agree this is worth a visit. The British Museum it isn't, but a crammed, cramped room and balconies based around a single Victorian collection.

True to its anthropological focus, cabinets are arranged around human themes (body decoration, way of death, music...) and will span centuries and continents making for fascinating juxtapositions of human artifacts.

You enter through the Natural History Museum (also worth a visit) with the obligatory dinosaur and elephants skeletons. But it is the Pitt Rivers I love the most.

A fine museum - dark, musty, jumbled and a great place to go exploring. The museum is arranged according to how the objects/artifacts were used (rather than history/origin/age) which is kinda cool. I'm not sure if these exhibits are still running, but i would highly recommend "the shrunken heads" and the "witch's bottle". In fact, all of the witchcraft history in the Pitt River is absolutely fascinating.

Well worth the visit and great for kids too.

Fantastic place! I’ve been there a few times and there’s always so much more to see. Unlike any other museum I’ve ever been to, full of fascinating things. I’ve been on one of the behind the scenes tours that they run and that’s also highly recommended because it gives you more of an idea of the research projects, conservation and access issues around the collections.

This is the best museum in Oxford. Great for adults and kids alike. We take our sons here quite often in the winter months, especially as it’s free! It’s a really old fashioned approach to museum display - no interactive stuff, just an amazing array of anthropological gems stuffed into glass cases. The highlight is the shrunken heads…

Wow, this is an unusual museum that is packed full of anthropological artifacts and exhibits. It is maybe not suitable for very small children, as some of the artifacts such as the shrunken heads are not for the faint hearted. Older children will relish the more macabre displays. As always in Oxford parking difficult so if you are not local, Park and Ride is the best option.

Although I went before the recent renovation, this little museum was quite a gem - all Victorian exploration artefacts and tiny descriptive signs. It’s a real treasure trove and you have to be prepared to spend time looking at things in detail as most cabinets are crammed full with objects. My favourites were the jewellery and musical instruments, although the enemy skulls are quite fascinating in a chilling sort of way! Definitely worth a visit.

A wonderful rainy-day place to go with children of all ages, including the grown-up ones. Shrunken heads, weapons, toys, “things” to guess the function of - the Pitt-Rivers has something for everyone, especially those fascinated by 'disgusting’ things. Cabinets and drawers to open add to the air of secrecy and discovery surrounding some of the items.

The loos are excellent, and a very welcome addition.

Great place to take your children to introduce them to museums, there is a whelm of items here and your children will be talking about it all the way home. Fascinating place for adults to go to to take them back to their childhood as many people would have visited here in the past.

The Pitt Rivers Museum is temporarily closed, reopening in Spring 2009.

Absolutely my favourite museum and the museum of museums.

Hidden away in a corner of the Natural History Museum (itself fabulous) is this cornucopia (thank you, spellcheck!) of treasures amassed by a Victorian anthropologist.

It’s a fabulous jumble of ethnographic bits and bobs crammed into cases according to use, rather than area of origin or age.

I was going to mention the shrunken heads and the collecting box, but I see everyone else has. So what else is there? Tools, jewellery, coffins, musical instruments, photographs…. anything you can imagine really.

The museum closed this summer for a year for refurbishment and expansion. I really hope they don’t sanitise it and lose the glorious jumbled-together feeling.

An excellent musuem following on from the ashmoleom, a truely amazing site for a musuem it has all the classics of a musuem skeletons , and shrunken head which this musuem is famous for , but other than that it offers a lot of history local and not so local with friendly advisors and staff and a nice gift shop to buy a memory of this truely amazing place.
the msuem is open most days and is a great place for tourists to visit when in oxford im sure students will find inspiritation in this musuem as it is steeped in history from the world.

I love the Pitt Rivers Museum: it’s a deeply fascinating place to visit if you’re at all interested in early history and the cultures of other places… And of course, the shrunken heads are a major talking point!

Free entry into here makes it a place not too miss out on, even if you go only to see the shrunken heads. They are not too gross, even for little ones, who I dont think realise what they are.
The whole exhibition is very intrigueing, being the collection of the famous explorer.

this place is great for a family day out or a good place for a first date, the good thing is that its free to go in and you also get some great educational info. Dinosaurs are fab and you little boys wil love it.

A MUST visit and very easy to miss, the Pitt Rivers is situated in the rear of the University Natural History Museum on Parks Road, opposite Keble college. Although it is quite cramped, there are an amazing number of fascinating artefacts. Take it slow, as it is very easy to miss things; I’ve been three times and discovered something new on each occasion! Watch out for the shrunken heads!

This is one of Oxfords hidden treasures. Situated behind the Natural History Museum, as soon as you enter you can feel the atmosphere with a looming totem pole and cabinets full of curiosities. My nine year old son loves the little money collecting thing with the pigmes 'dancing’ when you put in money and I love the shrunken heads! There is an abundance of excitement here and its all free!!