Readers have been reacting after Oxford University Press decided its bookshop in the High Street will not reopen.
Instead, its academic books will be stocked at Blackwell’s in Broad Street.
Readers gave their views on the Oxford Mail’s Facebook page.
OUP is based in Walton Street and is renowned for publishing the Oxford English Dictionary both in print and online.
A statement on OUP’s website says: “OUP has decided not to reopen the Bookshop, which has been closed since the first UK lockdown in March 2020.
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“Instead, OUP books in Oxford will move to a new home in Blackwell’s Bookshop on Broad Street.
“A dedicated display space for OUP’s books, showcasing a range of our publishing activities, will be located in Blackwell’s Norrington Room.”
Earlier this month, it emerged that the family running Blackwell’s, the UK’s largest independent bookseller, had put the business up for sale. A deal would take Blackwell’s, which operates 18 shops and a website, out of family control for the first time in its 143-year history.
According to the Guardian, the chain said it was looking for an external investor after a plan to put the business into employee ownership fell through.
IAN WITHAM: “I bought an Oxford University Press book of poems from the Kindle store. I got a history of baseball. It didn’t have any poems in it, not even Casey At The Bat. We need bookshops where we can see and touch what we are buying.”
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CARLA BRAMBLE: “I can’t believe that if the rent was set at an attractive level someone wouldn’t have jumped into Jamie’s by now. How long has that been? It’s a total eyesore apart from being a sad waste of an opportunity for someone.”
OXFORD MAIL READER: “Carla Bramble it’s an enormous building, I worked there for years, basement level and lots of space on 1st and 2nd floors. Needs breaking into smaller units.”
PETER KILTY: “Why? Very sad. I remember it well.”
VALERIE GORMAN: “The employees of OUP (on Clarendon Street) are all still working from home.”
JOHNNY HINKES: “The High Street hasn’t died, it is changing. Be patient.”
JACK RICHENS: “Johnny Hinkes a massive row of American Candy and Souvenir shops that,somehow, afford ground rent on flagship retail space that global brands cannot.”
TONY BRETT: “Yes - Westgate has killed the High Street, Cornmarket and Queen Street and has totally jammed up Abingdon Road and Botley Road day in, day out. Awful Oxford City Council own goal!”
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ADAM HARDIMAN: “Tony Brett, Oxford City Council are known neither for their aesthetics nor business sense.”
DEAN GILES: “Another coffee shop on the way.”
LIZZIE LIGHTS: “That’s okay - they are all going to close when the 650 parking/ disabled parking/ loading bays are all taken away.”
WILLIE CLARK-HALL: “I am surprised anyone can claim to have admired the shop a fortnight ago! You can clearly see empty shelves.”
ABBY SAKS: “OUP books will be available at Blackwell’s which is currently on the market for sale.”
NEIL WALKER: “All part of the council and universities’ Grand plan.
“When they killed The Cellar off I had no reason to go into the city centre and I only live three miles from it!
“All these boarded up shops doesn’t exactly make it an attractive city to visit. Now and when they make it totally car free, they will finally have their wish. The council lot all need kicking out their jobs, Too many highly paid idiots detached from reality and filling their pockets.”
OXFORD MAIL READER: “It was always a pointless PR exercise to make senior members of the university feel important, actual over the counter sales to public were minimal.”
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OXFORD MAIL READER: “The OUP seems to have been used as a source of income for the university for years and is now reaching the end of its cash-cow usefulness. I have a vague recollection they don’t even print their own books any more.”
OXFORD MAIL READER: “Almost no publishers print their own books, it is all done by specialist printing companies.
“In 2020/21 they turned over more than 3/4 of a billion pounds, made over £70m surplus (they registered as a charity so don’t make ‘profit’), and donated over £40m to the university.”
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