We want all our guests who eat, drink or stay at The Durham Ox to be safe, secure and able to relax in the knowledge we are doing everything necessary to protect you, our customers and our team members from the risk of infection.

We are championing this Safe Space Code which has been developed together with taking guidance and advice from UK Hospitality, the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health, and other hygiene experts. We use this Code as the framework from which to create individual risk assessments tailored to The Durham Ox. Our five point code takes account of:

1. Social Distancing – complying with evolving government guidelines in the most practical and effective way for The Durham Ox to help ensure that you, our team members and our suppliers are always safe.
2. Extra Hygiene Measures – putting in place effective extra measures, like hand sanitiser and cleaning at the key times and in particular in the key high traffic areas and investing in a Medical Grade fogger for the bedrooms.
3. Team training and supervision – we’re proud of our team and the knowledge and skills they have. We’ve made sure they have the training and guidance to deal with any issues arising from coronavirus.
4. Public spaces and our guest experience – We’ve run through what you as a customer used to do in different areas of The Durham Ox, and have made the appropriate changes to give you and the team the safe space that we all need to enjoy the pub.
5. What we ask of you – things have changed but all we ask is that you enjoy your time with us, follow any requests we make to help protect you, our other guests and our team members. Please bear with us if some things take slightly longer than they used to, we’re probably just ensuring that we’re doing things safely!

We trust our Code will assure you that we are extremely serious about everyone’s safety and give you confidence that the team will be doing all that’s necessary to protect everyone so you can relax and enjoy the experience.

We very much look forward to welcoming you to The Durham Ox.

We are taking the utmost care to ensure that we all stay safe during your visit to The Durham Ox and we very much look forward to welcoming you here.

We ALL have to adhere to all the new rules and regimes to minimise risk. Help us make sure that we are all more Covid secure. We all play an important part together so please help us maintain a safe place for each other to all enjoy the Ox.  Should you not feel well, please contact us immediately and we will make any necessary arrangements for moving your booking.

On arrival at The Durham Ox, please park in the car park.  Access is via the rear steps of the pub ONLY for dining.  On entering the pub, there is a new meet and great station from which we will check you in and later on show you to your table for dining. We are staggering bookings in ten minute intervals to help with arrivals, but should someone already be waiting, please do keep to the 1 metre guidelines.

Please be aware that this is only going to work if everyone cooperates and helps each other. The Durham Ox is an old building with pinch points, narrow walk ways, doorways and small bathrooms.  Please be as sensible as possible to keeping your social distance. The only entrance into the pub, is via the rear steps, with separate exit points.

At present, tables can be no larger than 8 people at present and for dining can be from no more than 2 households for inside dining.  We will be keeping abreast of all government guidelines and advise you about any changes we make to the availability of outside dining.

We are taking the utmost care to ensure that we all stay safe during your visit to The Durham Ox and we very much look forward to welcoming you here.

We ALL have to adhere to all the new rules and regimes to minimise risk. Help us make sure that we all more Covid secure. We all play an important part together, please help us maintain a safe place for each other to all enjoy the Ox.  Should you not feel well, please contact us immediately and we will make any necessary arrangements for moving your booking.

On arrival at The Durham Ox, please park in the car park and leave all your things in the car.  Then only one of you should come in to the pub to check in.  Access is via the rear steps of the pub ONLY.  On entering the pub, there is a new meet and great station from which we will check you in and later on, show you to your table for dining. We have invested in a medical grade fogger to disinfect the bedrooms between stays. Please note that we will be unable to service rooms for multi-night stays.

Please be aware that this is only going to work if everyone cooperates and helps each other. The Durham Ox is an old building with pinch points, narrow walk ways, doorways and small bathrooms.  Please be as sensible as possible to keeping your social distance. The only entrance into the pub is via the rear steps, with separate exit points. 

We always book a table for our residents for dinner, however we will now confirm an exact time with you to reduce congestion in the pub.  Currently we are only allowing dining within the main pub and drinking tables are in the Ox Barn and courtyard.

Tables can be no larger than 8 people at present and for dining can be from no more than 2 households for inside dining.  Drinking tables outside can be made up of multiple households and up to 6 people from mixed abodes, or up to 8 from 2 households.  We will be keeping abreast of all government guidelines.  Should you be booked as party of multiple houses, we can discuss options.

If we can be of any further assistance prior to your stay, please do not hesitate to contact us. In the meantime we look forward to welcoming you to The Durham Ox and do hope that you have an enjoyable stay.