Jericho is Oxford's most appealing neighbourhood for an afternoon wander — a compact Victorian district northwest of the city centre, developed in the 19th century to house workers at the nearby Oxford University Press and the canal wharves. Its grid of terraced streets contains an unusually good range of independent shops, restaurants, and cafes, and it has a relaxed, neighbourhood feel quite different from the tourist bustle of the centre.
Walton Street is the main drag, running north from the Ashmolean end of the city through Jericho's restaurants and independent shops. The street has a good bookshop (Waterstones, though not as impressive as Blackwell's), a handful of independent clothing stores, and several of Oxford's better restaurants. Little Clarendon Street, running east from Walton Street, is where many of the more interesting independent shops cluster. The Oxford Playhouse — the city's main producing theatre — is at the southern end of Walton Street. The area is easily reached on foot from the city centre in about ten minutes.