Shopping in Oxford – Where to Find Your Oxford Shops

Oxford Shops – Oxford Shopping Streets and Shopping Centres:

Shopaholics need not feel concerned about suffering withdrawal system when they visit Oxford. Most well-known high street shops and department stores are represented here. The main Oxford shopping streets include Queen Street, Cornmarket Street, the High and Magdalen Street. Then there are the Westgate and Clarendon Centre indoor malls.  The majority of Oxford shops are open seven days a week.

Other smaller streets with interesting shops include Little Clarendon Street, Turl Street, The Golden Cross and Gloucester Green.

Throughout Oxford city centre there are also specialist shops, selling everything from writing materials and Venetian masks (Scriptum), vintage dresses (AnnaBelinda), antique and designer jewellery, toys and kitchenware (Boswell) to fantasy cakes. If you’re after some hand-made Oxford shoes, Ducker and Son on Turl Street was patronised by the Red Baron WWI flying ace.

Book lovers can browse endlessly in Oxford bookshops selling new and secondhand books. Blackwell’s Bookshop at 53 Broad Street is like an Aladdin’s Cave of books and had the distinction of housing the largest display of books for sale in one room anywhere in the world.

For gifts and souvenirs from Oxford, the special outlets and independent shops that sell exclusive or quality gift items include the shop at the Bodleian Library, the Oxford Tourist Information Centre, the Ashmolean Museum and the University of Oxford Shop (on the High), the only place licensed to sell the full range of the University’s own merchandise – definitely worth visiting.

The Covered Market, off High Street/Market Street was created in 1772 to rid Oxford’s streets of their “untidy, messy and unsavoury stalls”. Today’s market is anything but unsavoury!  There is a colourful collection of small shops selling everything from hand-made hats, gifts, shoes, watches, jewelry and clothing to Oxford sausages, organic meat, butchers, bakers, a fishmonger, a specialist cheese shop, green grocers and florists and wonderfully decorated cakes. The Covered Market is a nice place to take a break from shopping and enjoy a snack and drink at one of the cafés or sandwich stalls.

Oxford Map:

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