[1][2] The Isis Lock is close to Sheepwash Channel, just to the south and linking with the River Thames to the west.

[3] To the west of the lock are Rewley Road, the Cherwell Valley Line, and the Cotswold Line, just north of Oxford railway station.

There is a winding hole for boats to turn on the Oxford Canal just to the north of the lock.

In central Oxford, the Oxford Canal and the River Thames were originally linked by a flash lock at Hythe Bridge.

[4] In 1795–97, David Harris replaced it with Isis Lock, a broad lock to allow Thames barges in and out of the Oxford Canal Company's Worcester Street wharves.