Bates Collection of Musical Instruments
Oxford, Oxfordshire
About Bates Collection of Musical Instruments
The Bates Collection of Musical Instruments has over 2000 immaculately maintained instruments from Western orchestral music traditions, all the way from the renaissance period, through the baroque, classical, romantic and up to modern times! More than a thousand instruments are on display at any one time, by all the most important makers and from pre-eminent collectors. It's an amazing stop for kids who love instruments, but even if they don't most children and indeed adults will find themselves fascinated by the sheer range and variety of instruments.
Plus the Bates Library includes over 3000 books, periodicals and other publications on the subject of musical instrument development and music technology! It includes the Philip Bate, Anthony Baines and Reginald Morley-Pegge archives plus a developing sound archive of instruments from the collection.
There are no children's features here and it is really recommended for either musical types or the sort of kids who are happy in museums, running and shouting etc is not really on, here, so if you're not sure how sedate they can manage why not tire them out with something more active from out listings and use this as a nice soothing stop on the way home while they're too tired to misbehave!
Opening Times
Monday - Friday: 2.00pm - 5.00pm Saturday morning openings start in October. CLOSURE The Bate Collection will be closed from 19th to the 31st of August for gallery refurbishment.
Pricing & Tickets
Admission is free!
Book in advance for cheapest tickets
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FAQs
Contact Details
Bate Collection Faculty of Music, St Aldates
Oxford
Oxfordshire
OX1 1DB
England
Tel: 01865 276139
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Last Updated: 06:54 26/02/2026
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