Our Beginnings

Once a canal pub famous as Navigation End, the Queens Arms, Rosie O'Gradys and The Duke's Cut. Now The Lighthouse carries on the centuries old, rich tradition of quality hospitality and service in Oxford's West End.

The pub is built on the remains of a Baptist meeting house, destroyed in 1715. By 1830, James Pacey ran the pub as 'Navigation End' and Pacey's Bridge, which runs across the Lighthouse, is named after him.

Thomas Lucas, the mayor who laid the foundations of Oxford Town Hall in 1892, grew up in the 'Queens Arms' as it was then known.   

The Lion Brewery on St Thomas Street brewed the ales served at the Queens Arms as it was still know 150 years later. Since the Lion's closure in 1999, the pub has sourced its ales from the nearby Wychwood Brewery in Witney and the Lighthouse is proud to continue the tradition serving real ales brewed locally.