Home > Oxfordshire > Bicester > Olde Pioneer Olde Pioneer
Date of photo: 2010
The Olde Pioneer was situated at 35 Market Street. This grade-II listed pub, originally known as The Red Lion, closed at the end of 2009 and was converted to use as an Indian restaurant in 2012.
Source: Brian Wray
Now trading as a Chinese cocktail bar and restaurant.
David Gormley (November 2025)
Review from tantallon.org.uk:
Loud jukebox with excellent bass reproduction behind the bar, and nothing at all on cask. Not a drop. The John Smiths Extra Smooth is entirely tasteless but with the expected texture. The Ladies is deficient in the way of locks and toilet papers. Otherwise it looks pretty generic as a pub. The clientele are entirely folk from Bicester who may or may not actually be old enough to drink there. But they keep themselves to themselves. Were this in Oxford, it'd be called townie and store well clear of by students. The pub sign is two explorer figures, one of which has a light bulb on his hat wired to another light bulb. I like this pub rather less than some of the others in Bicester, but it's not aimed at me in particular. (1.x.1998)
Listed building details:
Public house, now restaurant and dwelling. Late C18/early C19. Rendered walls with some stucco dressings; Welsh-slate roof. Main range plus rear wing. 5 storeys. Symmetrical 3-window rendered front, with plinth and first-floor sill band, has a central pilastered stucco doorcase with entablature, and has flanking tripartite sashes, 12-pane first-floor sashes, and 6-pane second-floor sashes. Interior not inspected.
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Other Photos
Date of photo: 2015	Picture source: Movement80