The Old Bank is in a great place to stay if you want to explore the quads and nooks of Oxford colleges. It’s the best hotel on the High Street (or The High as it's known), a road that is dotted with Varsity clothing stores, the ancient academic gown retailer, Shepherd and Woodward, grubby student pubs and various colleges including Brasenose and St Edmund Hall. The name gives away the hotel’s history as a former Barclays Bank site, a function for which the building was wasted, before finding a more suitable vocation as a trendy airy brasserie for the hotel.

The main entrance brings you into the front of the bustling restaurant and bar, which is adorned with bold modern art and looks onto the high street through seven huge elegant windows that are left ajar in the summer to air the room.

If you enter the left hand door you reach the hotel reception, which is discreet and like the rest of the hotel is sleek and in muted dark chocolate browns and beiges. My check-in was efficient, although I was disappointed to have been offered a choice of newspapers and then find a charge for this on my bill – I think it should be made clear that the paper is not complimentary.

My room was a suite overlooking the High Street – the best of the room views as you get views of the University church, St Mary’s, and behind it a peak at the dome of the Bodleian Library. The room had a small living area with television and a second television in the spacious bedroom. If you don’t opt for suite rooms tend to be small, the price you pay for a city centre location.

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The décor was agreeable – a bold fabric headboard, soft furnishings in greys, fawns and creams, and all the mod cons: tea and coffee, safe, iron and ironing board, DVD player on request, quiet air conditioning, and Molton Brown toiletries. What sets the décor apart from what the pleasing, but increasingly ubiquitous earthy and contemporary styling of boutique hotels, is the artwork. There’s the bold paintings in the bar and restaurant, then arty black and white photographs of Oxford by Paddy Summerfield in the public areas, and attractive sketches by Sir Stanley Spencer in the bedrooms.

The hotel has found a winning formula with its Quod Brasserie and Bar, which is busy throughout the week (so it’s worth booking a table, even if you’re a guest at the hotel). Breakfast is a generous buffet of granola, pastries, yoghurts and fruit, served until 10.30am, which you can eat on the terrace if the weather is good (Full English is £12.95, Continental is £10.95). There’s also an a la carte menu including smoke haddock and poached egg (£7), or a fresh fruit platter (£6).

The lunch and dinner menus are the same and the hotel makes no bones over stating that the food is simple and unpretentious. While this is the case there’s something for everyone, from soups, salads and risottos to burgers, steaks and fishcakes. I had the ham hock terrine with red onion marmalade (£4.95), which was flavoursome and not too fatty, then had a perfectly cooked slow roasted lamb shank with roast vegetables (£15.50). The sticky toffee pudding (£4.50) is reputedly excellent, as are the fish and chips with mushy peas, served on Fridays. The restaurant also does a Sunday roast and jazz on Sunday evenings.

Afternoon tea, while not as popular as the spread at the Old Bank’s sister hotel, The Old Parsonage, is good – the blow out is the £16.95 Graduate Tea, which includes finger sandwiches, scones with jam and cream, a cake and glass of champagne.

The chatty and clattery atmosphere of the restaurant is matched by a buzzing bar that is popular with the city’s young professionals and the odd wealthy student. The cocktails start at £5.95, there are seven bottled beers to choose from and the wine list is compact but comprehensive in terms of geography and depth, with bottles starting at £11.95, 50cl pichets at £8.95, and all wines also offered by the glass (from £3.30).

The hotel offers in-room spa treatments using an external spa company, which start at £45 for a 25-minute massage and the same for a facial. You can also opt for manicures, pedicures, waxing and makeovers.

Tripadvisor users gave the hotel an average rating of four out of five, which I’d support. Most complaints concerned noise from the High Street, which I didn’t notice, although I live in a noisy part of London so am perhaps used to it. Others said that is was too expensive, and further complaints concerned the size of the rooms.

Bottom line: Rooms cost from £160 per night includign taxes but not breakfast

Best thing: the brasserie and the location

Worst thing: the size of some standard rooms

Access all areas: the hotel is wheelchair accessible and has a guestroom designed for guests in a wheelchair with a wet room.

Need to know: Old Bank Hotel, 92-94 High Street, Oxford, OX1 4BJ; tel. 01865 799599; www.oldbank-hotel.co.uk; info@oldbank-hotel.co.uk

Food: 9 out of 10

Service: 9 out of 10

Room: 8 out of 10

Value: 6 out of 10

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