Shopping
Where to shop: most well-known high street names and department stores are represented in Oxford’s principal shopping streets – Queen Street, Cornmarket Street, the High and Magdalen Street – and in the Westgate and Clarendon Centre indoor malls. The majority of these shops are open seven days a week.
The Covered Market, off High Street / Market Street:
was created in 1772 to rid Oxford’s streets of their “untidy, messy and unsavory stalls”. Today’s market is a colourful collection of small shops selling everything from hand-made hats and gifts to Oxford sausages or antiquarian books. Cafés, sandwich stalls, butchers, bakers, delicatessens, green grocers and florists ensure that it is anything but unsavory.
Books Galore:
Oxford offers endless browsing in second-hand and antiquarian bookshops and in its excellent selection of modern bookstores. These include eight Blackwell’s Bookshops, the family firm founded in 1879 whose main store is at 53 Broad Street. This store includes a coffee shop and the Norrington Room: built beneath the quad of Trinity College, this vast room has the distinction of housing the largest display of books for sale in one room anywhere in the world. Blackwell’s run literary walking tours from 53 Broad Street, plus a programme of readings, authors’ signings and other literary activities.
Specialist and Exclusive Lines:
special outlets and independent shops which sell exclusive or quality gift items include Alice’s Shop in St Aldate’s, the shop at the Bodleian Library, the Oxford Information Centre, the Ashmolean Museum or the University of Oxford Shop, the only place licensed to sell the full range of the University’s own merchandise.
Little Corners with Lots of Character:
smaller streets of interest include Little Clarendon Street, Turl Street, Golden Cross and Gloucester Green – all with a nice sprinkling of one-off gift shops, boutiques, silver specialists, jewellers or other independent shops of character. Gloucester Green also hosts an open-air market on Wednesdays, a bric-a-brac market on Thursdays and a Farmers’ Market on the first Thursday of each month. Golden Cross was the former courtyard of the medieval inn where the Shakespeare Players often performed en route from London to Stratford-upon-Avon.
Why not browse our e-shop now and explore the array of Oxford goods for sale.
