Bate Collection of Musical Instruments and Archives — Attraction in Oxford

Fascinating collection of musical instruments

It's free, it's fascinating its great you can hear some of instruments via the supplied audio devices...brought it to life. There are plenty of different instruments to try on the central area, crumhorn, flutes, feramin (no idea if i spelled it correctly.. probably not ..sorry!) And a harpsichord. Amazing displays of a huge variety of woodwind, brass and harpsichords. There aren't any 'modern' instruments but plenty older and classical to enjoy. Very friendly and very helpful mean on the desk.

The directions will get you to the access door but you will need to press the button to request access... No issue but you need to know (there is a sign but it isn't what you might...

This museum is sort of tucked away, but I loved it. Oxford has a massive collection of unique musical instruments. You can do an audio tour that shows you examples of each instrument being played. So some variations of normal instruments will be played in the context of opera music especially. If you talk to the worker or schedule a time in advance, you can even play the instruments. They have some instruments that belong to famous musicians, and so that made my heart happy when I got that opportunity. I ended up chatting with the woman working at the front desk for over an hour, and it was interesting to hear about her experiences living in London and Oxford, and it really just opened my eyes to the...

Within these rather dingy & hidden away rooms (on St Aldgates & Floyds Row) what a surprise ! A magnficent display of over 2000 period musical instruments - some of these can be heard on a handheld device as you go around - a friendly & knowledgeable keeper of the collection - anyone with an interest in music should go to see it next time...