The name was changed after the Second World War at the request of Oriel College which maintained that the square had originally been known as Oriel Square.
To the west at the northern end is Bear Lane.
Canterbury Gate of Christ Church also backs onto the square.
The television crime series Inspector Morse used the square as a location in the episodes "The Dead of Jericho", "Last Seen Wearing", "The Ghost in the Machine", "Infernal Serpent", "Absolute Conviction", "Deadly Slumber" and "The Daughters of Cain".
[2] Oriel Square is the setting for a poem by Sir John Betjeman titled "On an Old-Fashioned Water-Colour of Oxford".